Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has staged a walkout on live television to protest the “disgusting” remarks of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah against her.
In a clip of the show from earlier this week, the minister can be seen expressing her disgust over what the JUI-F leader said regarding her in Pashto, in a video that went viral on Tuesday. “Such people, who do not respect women, should be boycotted by the society,” Gul tells the host of the private media outlet’s talk show before walking out in protest.
She can also be heard urging media outlets to not invite people like Hamdullah to their talk shows, regretting that the JUI-F leader had spoken about a respectable woman such as herself, who was respected by men even in her conservative constituency of Dera Ghazi Khan.
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“I don’t know if you know Pashto. But I didn’t say anything like that. She is like a sister to me. I have sisters and daughters… all women are like sisters to me,” Hamdullah tells the host after Gul’s walkout, when the anchorperson gives him a chance to explain his position and apologise if he had made those remarks.
“The mood in which I spoke, I state under oath, I didn’t speak in a way as if I disrespect her,” Hamdullah responded. “Why would I? What issue do I have with her?
“But despite all this… if she was hurt, then I apologise for that,” the JUI-F leader said. “I would not disrespect her even if she abused me.”
The anchorperson praised the JUI-F leader for apologising to Gul. He, however, politely asked Hamdullah to quit the show as well.
Meanwhile, sources informed The Current that Gul’s strong reaction had come in response to Hamdullah mocking her in a viral video, saying that his smile was great too. In an interview last month, Gul had praised Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, saying that “the world knows of his killer smile that pulls people out of crises”.
