‘Ashamed and pained’: PM Khan reacts to the Minar-e-Pakistan incident

Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke about the assault of a female TikToker by hundreds of men near Minar-e-Pakistan earlier this month. He said that he was “ashamed and pained” by what happened, citing the lack of proper upbringing as a vital reason for the destruction we are seeing in society.

While addressing the Punjab Education Convention 2021 in Lahore, the premier said the incidents of harassment and the sex crimes that were taking place now were “not a part of our culture or religion”.

“When I was growing up, nobody could have thought that acts like this would happen [in Pakistan]. I have been to the entire world; the respect for women I saw while growing up existed in Muslim countries but not in the West. A big reason for the destruction we’re seeing is that our children are not being brought up properly,” he added.

PM Khan praised the Punjab government for doing what no other province is doing. He termed the provincial government’s work in the education sector very important, saying education had not been a priority for previous governments.

Recalling his educational journey, from the time when he graduated from Aitchison College and went to England for higher studies, he remarked, “I was made an English public-school boy, not a Pakistani. I was distanced from my culture and my religion through that educational system.”

“The English medium [system] evolved in such a way that there was less emphasis on education and more emphasis on creating desi vilayati (local foreigners). The attitudes and mental slavery of another culture were absorbed.”

Criticising the use of English in functions, the premier said, “An entire function was held in English because of two ambassadors and it was being aired on TV, which was being watched by the common man. How big of an insult it is to our people who don’t know English.”

English should not be a “status symbol”, the premier stressed.