PTI MNA Muhammad Iqbal Afridi objected to a woman’s outfit during a meeting of a National Assembly standing committee, following which the panel’s chairman, Muhammad Idrees, apologised over the matter.

Afridi objected to the attire of a high-ranking K-Electric official who attended the power division committee’s meeting today at Parliament House. The lawmaker said he raised the issue after the KE official had briefed the panel and left the meeting room.

According to a notification shared by the NA Committees’ official X account, one of the items on the meeting’s agenda was a “comprehensive report/implementation status” of previous recommendations about issues raised by MNAs Afridi and Syed Rafiullah “regarding the disconnection overbilling and unannounced load-shedding of electricity in Karachi and erstwhile Fata”.

Afridi is not a member of the NA committee but was present as a lawmaker from NA-27 (Khyber) who had raised the matter of load-shedding.

Afridi termed the KE official’s attire “objectionable”, adding that she “should not have attended the meeting in such an outfit”.

The PTI lawmaker also said that “standard operating procedures (SOPs) should be devised for women’s clothing”.

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Responding to a query if his objection was “ethically correct”, Afridi stressed that the venue was the NA’s standing committee and attended by many people.

“If people come [to gatherings] in such a manner in a respectable society, what will children say?” he asked, adding that the public “learned” from watching them.

“There should not be such democracy here that ruins a society,” Afridi insisted.

He went on to claim that the “manner in which the other woman came risks ruining the system or the society”. “In my opinion, such people showing up in society is not right.”

Meanwhile, Idrees, the power committee’s chairman who presided over the meeting, apologised for the incident, saying it was “inappropriate”.

Asked if someone had the “right” to object to a woman’s dress, Idrees said, “No […] it is an individual’s [choice].”

He said that it was “inappropriate” to object to it, adding: “What he did would have happened under some misunderstanding.

“It does not happen on our forum that someone disrespects or says something like this […] Even if it did happen, then I apologise,” the committee chief said.

‘Regrettable, unacceptable harassment’

Afridi’s comments were criticised harshly by fellow lawmakers.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said Afridi’s objection to the woman’s dress was “regrettable and condemnable”.

“Who has made male MNAs ‘policemen’ on women’s clothing?” she asked in a post on X.

The senior politician said that the woman “must have reached that position owing to her abilities and qualifications” and that Afridi, being a committee member, should have respected her.

“Such objections show a conservative and patriarchal mindset that tries to keep women under their control by targeting their clothes,” Rehman said, adding that such thinking was a “hindrance” to achieving gender equality in the country.

“We want women to be judged by their ideas and services, not by their looks or clothes,” the senator asserted. “Women have the full right to attend any professional environment in clothes that they prefer and are comfortable for them.”

The PPP senator said her party “rejected such discriminatory and contemptuous statements”.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar called on the PTI to take action against Afridi, urging it to suspend their lawmaker’s party membership.

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In a statement, Tarar said harassment against women was “not acceptable under any circumstances”.

Referring to the PTI, the PML-N MNA quipped that the “movement of justice has become a movement of injustice for women”.

“Women in our society already face a lot of difficulties,” the information minister said, terming the incident “PTI’s fascism that was coming out in the open”.

‘Regrettable incident, no amount of condemnation will suffice’

Dr Shahida Rehmani, secretary Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC), said that the incident was regrettable, adding that no amount of condemnation for such incidents would suffice.

“But until when will we keep condemning [such incidents]” she asked in a video message, adding that “elements” such as the PTI MNA were “burdened by slave mentality” and wanted to “keep women subjugated forever”.

“There is a law for it,” she said, requesting the NA speaker to register a first information report (FIR) against such members.

She also called for the suspension of their Parliament membership, adding that commenting on the clothing of women was highly condemnable given that women had climbed their way to such honourable positions because of their ability.

“The constitution of Pakistan and Islam give women the freedom to wear whatever they want and if they [women] are to progress, it would be based on their ability,” she said.