Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari on Thursday regretted her recent harsh remarks passed in the wake of online trolling on Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz’s clothes.

 

Bokhari’s lament came days after she, during a press conference in Lahore, passed objectionable remarks, saying that mothers of those commenting on Maryam Nawaz’s attire “do not consider wearing appropriate clothes".

 

“I am in pain from giving such a statement. I should have expressed restraint,” Bokhari stated, speaking on a private media channel’s talk show.

 

When informed that she should not have responded to trolls at their level, as she holds a ministerial post, Bokhari admitted, “I should not have lost my temper, which I realised later."

 

Recalling the Thursday visit of the chief minister to Lahore's Shahdara to oversee relief measures amid the ongoing flood situation in the River Ravi, Bokhari said when Maryam Nawaz visited the affected area on a boat, “an organised propaganda” was carried out against the provincial executive chief.

 

When the host further informed Bokhari that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as well as Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) do not condemn the trolling of females, she replied that her party does not endorse trolling, adding, “We do not have any propaganda cell.”

 

“Why don’t they [trolls] come out of what CM Maryam is wearing? Why don’t they talk about her performance or how she is serving the people of Punjab?” she concluded by asking.