- Need for introspection
Prime minister Imran Khan’s misogynic remarks addressing PPP co-Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto as ‘sahiba’ have evoked a strong reaction. Not only the opposition but also women rights groups are quite miffed at him.
The furore symptomatic of fast changing social attitudes is a bit surprising. A few decades ago such comments would have been a source of amusement rather than outrage.
While Bilawal’s maternal grandfather, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was prime minister was once asked by the media why he sacked Ahmad Saeed Kirmani as ambassador to Egypt, he brushed aside the question by sarcastically asking: ‘who is she’? Kirmani, a mid -level opposition politician, was a fair-coloured good-looking man. At the time, instead of inviting opprobrium, his remarks were considered quite humorous.
More recently when Bilawal’s mother Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, at that time in the PML-N, passed some extremely derogatory remarks about her dress while sitting in the parliamentary lobby. Benazir either heard the remarks or they were reported to her.
What is the prime minister campaigning for instead of attending the parliament and playing his due role?
But there was no furore or public outrage. Nonetheless Rashid– known for his crude sense of humour to this day– was picked up on some unrelated charges. Incarcerated in Bahawalpur jail, he was released only on conveying his apologies through a mutual friend.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto could get away with it not only because he was riding a crest of immense popularity, but those were different times. There was no social media, television (except PTV) nor an unshackled print media. Rashid made the remarks in the aftermath of the General Ziaul Haq era.
The dictator in his 11 years rule in the name of Islam had no room in his lexicon for niceties like human rights nor, for that matter, was there room for any concept of women empowerment. Ludicrous laws like a woman’s evidence in courts should be considered half of that of a male were paraded around. And Rashid was a by-product of the misogynistic strongman’s era.
Another dictator general Pervez Musharraf perhaps gave some impetus to women empowerment by re-introducing reserved women seats in the parliament. That the rump of the women members indirectly elected in proportion to the respective parties strength in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies were mostly family members or relatives of political grandees with only a sprinkling of dedicated political activists. But it made a qualitative difference.
It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who, as the architect of the 1973 Constitution introduced ten reserved seats for women in the lower House. There was a sunset clause of ten years after which the provision was to expire. There were no seats reserved for women in the 1990, 1993 and 1997 general elections.
Hence the opposition women MNAs clustering around the Speaker of the House, expressing outrage at Khan’s remarks last Thursday, is relatively a new phenomenon. PTI women members who pride themselves for being in the forefront for equal rights must have also felt the pinch of their leader’s inopportune remarks.
Especially human rights minister, the enigmatic Shireen Mazari, known for speaking her mind, must be wincing in her seat. Apart for being the human rights minister Ms Mazari is an activist.
Should she not be taking a clear stand on the issue? The least she can do is to coach her leader on political correctness.
Politically Bilawal handled the issue quite cleverly saying that the Prime Minister, by making the remarks, had only insulted himself.
He added, “Referring to a man as a woman does not harm the man but what sort of message does this send to the women of Pakistan?” That being a woman is an insult?”
The Prime Minister’s apologists have defended him by saying that his remarks were “a slip of the tongue”. Another slip, but how many? Khan neither withdrew his comments, nor cared to offer an apology if not to Bilawal to the women of Pakistan.
The PTI chief is obviously annoyed at being constantly referred to as “a selected prime minister” too often by the opposition. Bilawal on Tuesday, while taking the prime minister to task for his faux pas at the recent joint press conference with the Iranian Prime Minister Hasan Rouhani, did not mince his words in the National Assembly.
He came out really hard on Khan and his not too infrequent slips of the tongue. By repeatedly denigrating him as just a puppet of the army leadership by claiming that he was the selected one, was perhaps the last straw for the Prime Minister.
But Newton’s third law of motion– ‘every action has an equal and opposition’– applies to politics as well. If from the PTI rank and file starting from the Prime Minister downward, the opposition is maligned and castigated as thugs and crooks 24/7, they should be ready to be paid back in the same coin.
However, the ruling coalition should be a little more thick-skinned than the opposition in taking blows coming their way. After all, as Prime Minister, it is Khan’s job description to take criticism in his stride.
Perhaps the PTI should introspect on its present strategy. It has simply not worked in the first nine months of ‘Riyasat-e-Medina’.
It is indeed surreal to see the Prime Minster donning the respective province’s attire addressing large public meetings while the opposition remains confined to Parliament. Theoretically it should be the other way around.
There are no elections in sight. What is the Prime Minister campaigning for, instead of attending Parliament and playing his due role?
To some extent all political machines have an altruistic attitude bordering on self-righteousness towards their respective audiences. Invariably the perennial message to the electorate is: we are the best.
But Khan’s mantra that we are notches above everybody else, has gone too far. The PTI government is finding it increasingly difficult s to shed the narcissistic ‘container mode’ and start speaking on the basis of its performance.
In a series of tweets on the foundation day of the PTI, Khan has glibly claimed that Pakistan is in the final phase of becoming like Riyasat-e-Medina. Ironically the Islamic Republic is far away from such lofty ideals.
In an era of historic economic downturn, crimes against women and minorities on the rise and scant regard for basic human rights, it takes a lot of bravado to make such tall claims. It will be a lot better if instead of aiming that high, the PTI endeavour to make Pakistan Jinnah’s Pakistan, where values of pluralism, tolerance and observing democratic norms are at least cherished, even if not practised in letter and spirit.