Minister in hot water after linking Maryam Nawaz’s beauty with costly surgeries

Tariq Butt, Correspondent 

Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Ali Amin Gandapur has used indecent language against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz.

His sexist remarks came at a public gathering a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan said Maryam Nawaz had been spared for being a woman over her anti-army remarks.

Gandapur made the controversial statement about Maryam Nawaz at a Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) rally in GB, saying: "She is beautiful but she spent millions on her surgeries from the taxpayers’ money."

Maryam Nawaz waves to supporters during an election campaign rally in GB.

He further said that if he picked anyone from the crowd and spent just a little from the taxpayers’ money on their surgeries they would look handsome like (Hollywood actors) Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

His assertions earned him severe criticism from opposition parties and people from different walks of life on social media.

"It appears that a woman (Maryam) has been on the nerves of the selected rulers. A single woman has shaken the entire vote-stealing government. Gandapur’s remarks are a reflection of the dirty mindset of the rotten system and moral bankruptcy of him,” Punjab PML-N president Rana Sanaullah said and added that such comments also showed that the ruling PTI had nothing to offer to the people of GB.

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Punjab PML-N information secretary Azma Bokhari said that Gandapur’s presence in parliament was an "insult to it.” Ministers were using this kind of language following in the footsteps of their leader Imran Khan, she alleged.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman termed the remarks "foolish and insulting.” "Gandapur’s remarks are insulting. His presence in GB during the polls is a violation of the election’s code of conduct,” she said.

However, Information and Broadcasting Minister Shibli Faraz defended his colleague and said Gandapur’s statement about Maryam was wrongly perceived as such kind of speeches in public gatherings were a routine matter in politics.

He said the indecent words and statements of Maryam and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders about the first lady were worse than the political remarks of Gandapur about Ms Nawaz.

The opposition has crossed all the limits of political ethics by criticising even the national institutions, he said and added that institutions were more important than individuals.