Imran Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman in Abbotabad
Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons
Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons
The ‘Naya Pakistan’ we find
ourselves in will be filled with unknowns and new opportunities. One of them
will be the chance for women voters to decide which is more inimical to their
interests: corruption or misogyny?
Pakistan will have a Prime
Minister with a strong view on the question. He is personally not corrupt, in
the sense that no accusations have ever been wielded against him for illegally
making or giving payments or ill-gotten gains. He has made incorruptibility the
backbone of his credibility as a politician, and the masthead of his party. (However, his selection of ‘electables’ in the
allocation of tickets, including many old-guard figures whose reputations are
more questionable, led to protests from PTI workers before the elections.)
Misogyny, on the other hand,
is a badge he wears with pride. As a recovered playboy, he is at great pains to
distance himself not only from his past but any whiff that may remain from his
considerable time spent in the west. Comfortable, at last, with a pious and
curiously shrouded wife, he said in an interview before the elections, “I
totally disagree with the western concept and the role of the feminist
movement, which has completely degraded the role of mother.” He then waxed on
about having been brought up by his mother, etc.
