Imran Khan on womens rights Justice for Women of Pakistan: Imran Khan opposes reserved seats for women

http://tribune.com.pk/story/480595/justice-for-women-of-pakistan-imran-khan-opposesreserved-seats-for-women/ By Ali UsmanPublished: December 17, 2012 LAHORE: Once it comes into power, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will empower people to run their schools and police stations in their villages, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday. Khan was addressing a seminar, Justice for Women of Pakistan, organised by PTI at the Aiwan-i-Iqbal in Lahore. Khan said PTI would establish small courts in villages to provide a speedy resolution to cases and give justice to women. It is in the remote areas where women normally suffer the most and dont have any means to get justice. These small courts will provide women immediate remedy and give them justice, he added. Khan said he was against reserved seats for women in assemblies. Legislators in assemblies are representatives of the people. How can some women be representative of women when they havent even contested elections? In some areas it is not possible for women to contest elections, but political parties should hold elections within their ranks and promote women into higher leadership positions, he said. Khan said people would be given the power to control schools and police stations in their villages so that the system runs efficiently. He said this would be done through local government systems and by decentralising power. When we say we will make all ghost schools functional, we dont intend to send the Army to indentify such schools. Locals will do so and they will run the schools, he added. Imran Khan said PTI would give women the right to their share in inheritance, and empower them through education. He said NGOs and many foreigners arrange education for women and people think it has an agenda behind it. PTI on the contrary, he said, would talk to locals and establish education institutions for women with their endorsement. Khan said there had been no co-education in Mianwali, but when Namal College was established locals were taken into confidence and the co-ed institution was now running successfully. He said PTI would empower women but not in the Western sense. In the West, they have nullified the due respect and stature for the mother. Housewives are looked down upon there and there is no dignity and respect for mothers, he added. He said women entrepreneurs would be offered special loans, transport facilities for women would be improved and day care centres would be established for working women under a PTI government. Literacy amongst women will be prioritised and the budget will be increased five-fold from the current meagre levels of less than 2 per cent. Literacy levels in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where the current literacy rate is 8 per cent will be addressed, he

added. He said that, PTI would be the first political party to train women on psychological, legal and political issues and how to handle them. He added that career counselling would be provided for female students in colleges and universities and a five per cent quota in jobs would be allocated to disabled women. Justice (retired) Nasira Javed Iqbal highlighted the legal position of women in various sectors of life including the political and legal arena. Psychiatrist Dr Saad Bashir Malik discussed the psychological traumas that women have to go through as a result of being singled out from birth as being inferior and treated as a burden throughout their life. Social worker and womens rights activist Seemi Raheel spoke about the exploitation of women in the media. She said advertisements, dramas and news items constantly reinforce the idea that women are of secondary value by restricting them to the role of looking good. Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2012. http://www.carbonated.tv/news/explain-this-mr-imran-khan Read More: fauzia kasuri, munawar hasan, pti ji alliance, ji, imran khan, munawar hasan rape comments, lower dir district, kpk, imran khan pti, lower dir women vote ban, pakistan, election 2013 pakistan</< td> Alarm bells are going off in the minds of educated PTI voters and supporters with respect to the recent actions of the party. First came the appalling news about a pact signed by all political parties (PTI included) to ban women from voting in the lower DIR district of Pakistan. On behalf of PTI the agreement was signed by a Dr. Nazir. This was done in clear violation of the code of conduct established by the Election commission of Pakistan. The pretense was all too familiar, and has been used for centuries to censor women in all cultures; sadly in the Islamic world this infestation has yet to be fumigated. Essentially the agreement resolves that in keeping with the local tradition the political parties and their signatories agree to disallow women from coming out of their homes out of concern for their safety and security, which can also be translated as Keep them uneducated, uninformed and subservient for all times to come. For the record this decision officially barred 138,905 women from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

Copy of Voting Agreement signed by All Political Parties in Lower DIR Imran Khan has an extremely questionable track record on issues related to womens rights and is widely viewed as cozying up to extremely conservative religious parties with openly misogynistic views. This agreement definitely adds fuel to that ever increasing bonfire of such evidence. New information has also surfaced that Imran Khans PTI is in talks with Munawar Hasans Jamat-I-Islami on forming a coalition government in the KPK province of Pakistan. Mr. Hasans views on womens rights can be summarized in a recent television interview where he insisted that women who have been raped would be best off in keeping the crime hidden and further suggested that the victims be imprisoned if they were unable to produce the requisite number of witnesses. He then further tried to justify his personally twisted and deranged ideology as part of the mainstream religion.

Source: Screen grab from YouTube He is also regarded as a ringleader of a select group of vocal and visible conspiracy theorists who blame everything negative in their country on either the United States directly or on some hidden foreign hand typically hinting towards Israel or India, the big three targets of all conspiracy theorists in Pakistan. And now news is surfacing about Mr. Munawars JI being offered several ministries including the Ministry of Education in KPK. It does not take a genius to imagine the fate of women and female education under a JI education ministry Imran Khan retracts his 'anti-women' comments From The Indian Express, Tue Dec 18 2012 PTI : Lahore, Tue Dec 18 2012, 16:15 hrs http://www.indianexpress.com/news/imran-khan-retracts-his-antiwomencomments/1047062/ Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan who is opposed to reserved seats for women in parliament, today retracted his critical remarks after facing the ire of women's organisations and lawmakers. "Women should not be elected on reserved seats, rather they should be part of parliament after getting elected through (a direct) vote," the cricketer-turned-politician said, while addressing his party's women's wing over the weekend. Women's organisations and the PML-N described Khan's remarks as "anti-women" and said he was "a man who is against women's rights". In the past, Khan has been criticised by civil society groups for being soft on the Taliban. Following the criticism, Khan today said his comments had been distorted as he had never said, "I am against reserved seats for women in the parliament". He further said: "Instead of women taking the reserved seats based on nomination lists, a special election specifically for women alone should be held for the reserved seats so as to ensure genuine women's representation".

Khan said the intra-party election of the Tehrik-e-Insaf was proof of the fact that reserved seats for women were being contested for in his party. "I hold that all legislators in an elected house are representatives of the people and the women on reserved seats should be truly representative of their lot," he said. Yesterday, women parliamentarians from the opposition and treasury benches in the National Assembly took on Khan over his remarks against reserved seats for women and challenged him to compare his educational credentials with any of them. Speaking on a point of order, PML-N lawmaker Anusha Rehman questioned whether Khan or his party had rendered any sacrifice for democracy or brought any legislation in parliament. She challenged Khan to compare his educational credentials with her. She further said a person like Khan, having no representation in parliament, has no right to comment against women MPs who have constitutionally reached parliament after being nominated by their parties. Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Shahnaz Wazir Ali said in the past too some people had raised their voice against reserved seats for women and commented that Khan seemed to be ignorant of the constitution and social justice. "Such comments against the women's quota are highly prejudiced, biased, discriminatory and alarming," she said. Law Minister Farooq Naek said Article 51 of the Constitution was very clear about the 60 reserved seats for women. He suggested the women MPs should move a privilege motion against Khan for his comments. http://archives.dawn.com/2006/11/20/nat7.htm Imran Khan rejects Hasba, women rights bills November 20, 2006 Monday Shawwal 27, 1427 By Our Correspondent PESHAWAR, Nov 19: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday rejected both the Protection of Womens Rights Bill and the Hasba Bill and said that both the bills had been adopted with ulterior motives; the former to divide opposition parties the latter to establish a parallel judicial system. The Protection of Womens Rights Bill, he said, had been passed to introduce a made-inWashington Islamic system in the country. It is also aimed at dividing the opposition parties. If a law related to women had been in place for more than 26 years, why it was not allowed to continu for one more year? he said.

We had never accepted the amended bill that had been passed by the National Assembly because it had not been endorsed by an elected parliament, he said. Referring to the Hasba Bill, he said that if the provincial MMA government was really interested in resolving public issues, it should have concentrated on strengthening the judicial system and reforming the police department, instead of passing a controversial law. He was speaking at the oath-taking ceremonies of the PTIs youth wing and district Peshawar office-bearers. Newly-nominated PTI district president Hamidul Haq, general secretary Mohammad Asif, Arif Yusuf and president of the partys youth wing Tariq Meer and press secretary Jawad Ali Shah took oath on the occasion. Imran Khan said that his party would mobilise people to stage anti-government protests, adding that a rally would be held in Kohat district on Nov 28. He said that it was clear now to everyone that President Musharraf would never leave power. He urged the opposition parties to unite on a single-point agenda to make President Musharraf quit government and force him to hold free and fair elections through an independent election commission.He said that he would go to Britain soon to meet former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for launching a movement against the government. Referring to his partys position about the issue of resigning from parliament, he said that the opposition needed to take a decision to resign en bloc, adding that MMAs resignations alone might not work. .. http://dawn.com/2012/05/14/women-to-get-their-rights-says-imran/ Women to get their rights, says Imran From The Dawn 14th May, 2012 By Ahmad Hassan ISLAMABAD, May 13: Mothers Day provided Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf an opportune moment to hold a convention of its women members in Islamabad that was as lively and as colourful as its jalsas. Amid songs and music, Imran Khan, the chairman of PTI, promised his party would ensure that women got their due rights under law and their share in hereditary property. Political observers noted that this was perhaps the first time that Mr Khan had given some concrete examples of his partys stand on womens rights so publicly. Despite his popularity among women, especially from the upper middle class, Mr Khan has been criticised by some for his conservative views, including his focus on womens rights as defined by the Sharia. In that context, analysts observed, his statement on Sunday was a step in the right direction even though it was not seen to be enough by many. They pointed out that he did not specifically address contentious issues such as honour killings and domestic violence. Some of his statements were on the general side and did not communicate much. Pakistani women have made up their mind for a real change and todays convention is a glimpse of that, he said. Then after pledging them their due share in property, he promised that no excesses on women would be allowed if his party came to power.

Poor women will get free legal service from our partys lawyers wing, he added. Even the official press release of the party did not give much space on his statements on womens rights and focused instead on his usual political rhetoric replete with the now predictable cricketing and tsunamis references. The corrupt political mafias days are numbered; they will not be able to face the winds of change, he claimed. Many saw this convention as a run up to his May 27 rally scheduled at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. He dubbed President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani corrupt crocodiles, and reiterated his commitment to bring back the looted money to Pakistan. The PML-N was not spared either which he criticised for ignoring his demand of resigning from assemblies to exert pressure on the PPP. Mr Khan claimed that Nawaz Sharif would not listen to him as the PML-N chief wanted to ensure its share in the caretaker set-up before the next general election. Once again he advised the PML-N leader to try to become a real tiger by quitting the assemblies, which he linked to the possibility of PTI and the PML-N joining hands. He emphasised the point by saying the PTI would not enter into any dialogue with the PML-N till the latter quit the assemblies and the Punjab government. In a potshot at the PML-N, he said that the zeal and enthusiasm evident at the womens convention was missing from the recently held rally of patwaris in Taxila, a reference to an event organised by PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. In more general terms, he also singled out education as the most important factor in taking society forward and reiterated his promise of declaring an education emergency across Pakistan once he came to power.