LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has said that discussion on the dissolution of provincial assemblies is in progress and the entire party is supporting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s decision of quitting the assemblies.
“I am confident that all our legislators will resign and there is no divide in the party on this decision,” said the PTI Central Punjab president while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.
Answering a question, she said that the news about former president Asif Ali Zardari coming to Punjab meant that he was “coming to buy legislators, which is a shameful act”.
In the recent by-elections, the “lotas” were rejected, she added. To another question, she said that the country was heading towards default and Pakistan going through political instability; “the people by voting for the PTI Chairman in the recent by-elections have given a clear verdict against the incumbent government”.
She was confident that once a date for fresh elections was announced the people will see stability in the economy, adding that this was also an opinion of economic experts.
“However, fearing a defeat, the government was resisting early elections,” she added. Dr Yasmin Rashid said that PTI Senator Azam Swati was being subject to mental and physical torture; “he was forced to remove his clothes”.
She further claimed that when they forced themselves into Swati’s house to arrest him, he was insulted in front of his family, especially the children, by law enforcement agencies.
“For one statement, an aged person was subjected to mental and physical torture,” she added.
“The whole episode of his arrest was very painful and we approached all the relevant forums, but all in vain; we pleaded with the courts to look into the matter. The most painful thing was leaking a private video of Swati’s wife, which was a breach of privacy and an act of disrespect to women. This imported government that is supposed to ensure privacy and protection, especially of women, has crossed all the limits of brutality,” she added.
She questioned why steps were not being taken to protect women’s privacy, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the total population of Pakistan.
“Till when the women will tolerate insults meted out to them,” she added.
“This shows that women in Pakistan were not safe and they have no rights in the country; those who talked about it were just paying lip service to the idea of women's rights. The country cannot progress without giving protection and respect to women,” she added.
She told the media that the female members of the PTI will submit a petition to the Supreme Court Registry Lahore with a plea to take up the matter and give protection to women, as they do not feel safe under this imported government. “We will ask the Supreme Court to give us justice and protection,” she added.
She castigated the PML-N-led government for bringing the country to the brink of ruin; “we were facing economic meltdown while this government was busy getting NROs and PML-N Nawaz Sharif with his daughter was touring Europe”.
She warned that when the women of this country came out to protest then the situation for the government would get out of control.
She also came hard on JUI-F chief Fazalur Rehman for making derogatory comments against women.
“His statement was an act of shame and an insult to women.”
She added that she will file a police report against him for making insulting remarks about women.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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