Maryam owes her beauty to taxpayers’ money, Gandapur claims

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Ali Amin Gandapur has claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz “owes her beauty to cosmetic surgeries performed at the expense of taxpayers”.

Speaking in a public gathering, the lawmaker went on a sexist tirade against the PML-N vice president. He said the PML-N leader became “beautiful” by spending tax money on her alleged plastic surgeries.

Addressing the people in the crowd, he said you people could also look like “Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt if you spend even a fraction of amount spent by Maryam on her facial surgeries”.

Previously, in a Twitter post, Gandapur had made sexist comments about PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Maryam Nawaz. In a post, he had said Bilawal is a man without any “masculine attributes” whereas Maryam was a woman who didn’t have “feminine qualities”.

In past, the PTI ministers have targetted Maryam for being a woman, but this is the first time that someone has claimed that she underwent cosmetic surgery.

Last month, Information Minister Shibli Faraz in an unfounded criticism said that “shoes, dresses and makeup do not make one a leader”.

Maryam owed her career to dynastic politics and thought of herself as the late prime minister (PM) Benazir Bhutto, he had said.

“Benazir was a well-educated lady […] shoes, dresses and makeup do not make you a leader. To be one, you need to live like a common person,” he said in his tirade. Maryam has time and again been criticised for her luxurious lifestyle and rather expensive dresses, footwear as well as accessories.