Three years ago, when Imran Khan was ‘selected’ as Prime Minister of Pakistan, there were many around the world who viewed this as a positive development – and their impression of Khan was that of a former cricket star, who set up a cancer hospital, and was not a dynast and therefore would not be corrupt and would lead Pakistan towards becoming a more liberal country.
The last three years, however, have demonstrated how deluded those views were as Imran Khan’s patriarchal, conspiracy prone, misogynist, and ultra-conservative and Islamist views have come to the fore.
In a recent piece titled ‘Pakistani PM Khan’s ultra-conservative inklings raise eyebrows,’ James Dorsey, journalist and commentator, points out “Widely seen as a populist with ultra-conservative inklings, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan increasingly appears to reinforce widespread traditionalist attitudes that reject religious tolerance as well as the rights of women and minorities.”
One key example: “Last month, the prime minister pushed the implementation of educational reform that would Islamicize syllabi across the board from primary schools to universities. Arabic would be mandatory for the first 12 years of a child’s schooling. Critics charge that religion would account for up to 30 per cent of the new syllabus. Fueling controversy, Mr. Khan recently blamed increased sexual violence in Pakistan on women who failed to dress properly. “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots. It’s just common sense,” Mr. Khan said.”
According to Dorsey, Khan is “aligning Pakistan in religious and social terms closer to Turkey than his country’s traditional allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has bolstered religious education at home as well as in Turkish schools abroad and recently withdrew from an international women’s rights convention.”
As an Editorial in Dawn stated “the prospect of enacting legislation against domestic violence inevitably throws certain sections of this society into a moral panic. Specious arguments referring to traditional and religious values are used to give a patina of legitimacy to what is essentially a desire to preserve a misogynistic culture predicated on men controlling women. Unfortunately, it seems that for many in the PTI government, the protection of women is subservient to pandering to these regressive elements.”
The newspaper noted that “legislation against gender-based violence must be strengthened instead of diluted. The Supreme Court in a judgement on Monday declared that the Protection of Women Against Harassment in the Workplace Act in its present form is limited in scope. Any action or behaviour that is not demonstrably ‘sexual’ in nature does not fall within its definition of what constitutes harassment, said the court, howsoever grave and devastating it may be for the victim. This is the reality. We have only taken initial steps towards protecting women; there is a long road ahead. Regrettably, the PTI government is marching in the opposite direction.”
