In two recent incidents, one in the lower house of the Parliament and other in a TV talk show, our male lawmakers showed utter disrespectful attitude towards women.
In the first incident, Federal Defense Minister Khawaja Asif while in his Parliamentary address used derogatory remarks against PTI female member of the Parliament Shireen Mizari. He called her not only ‘tractor trolley’ but also taunted that she should do something to change her voice like a woman. This behavior of a senior politician must be condemned and Speaker of the Parliament needs to be more active for not letting lawmakers, particularly of his party, to pass insulting remarks over other members. He might not be held accountable for violating any law of the land by disrespecting the women. But his unethical behavior should stir the debate in such a manner that no lawmaker could use harsh words against other Parliamentarians, particularly on the floor of the house.
In another incident Senator of JUI-F Hafiz Hamdullah as reported used very abusive language against a female analyst Marvi Sirmed during a television show. Without getting into details one thing is sure that there is no justification for using vulgar and extremely utter language against woman.
Second incident is not the one of its kind, it has happened number of times before that politicians have touched the lowest ethical level while debating on live TV talk shows. Though PEMRA has in recent times become very observant to check the quality of content of private TV channels still there is need to implement its instructions to avoid any infamous incident. TV channels should have a sort of understanding among themselves that if some guests are habitual of creating untoward scenes on talk shows, they should be boycotted and should not be given space in talk shows until they change their behavior.
Using highly unethical remarks against women by lawmakers must strongly be condemned.