Axios on HBO: Imran Khan links temptation to women’s clothes
Says they are not robots
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said in an interview with Axios on HBO that the “temptation” in Pakistani society would increase if women wore “very few clothes”.
“If a woman is wearing a very few clothes, it will have an impact on men unless they are robots,” PM Khan said in an interview with Jonathan Swan.
“I mean it is common sense.”
PM Imran Khan was criticised in April after he termed obscenity a “western” and “Indian” concept, saying that he believes sexual crimes in Pakistan were rising because of a decline in pardah.
“The concept of pardah is [to] avoid temptation in the society,” the Pakistan premier said, while referring to his earlier statement. Pakistan doesn’t have discos or nightclubs and it is completely a different society, he added.
“If you raise temptation in the society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society,” he said.
“If in a society people haven’t seen such sort of a thing, it will have an impact on them. If they grow up in a society like you, maybe it won’t happen.”
Afghanistan and the US
Pakistan will “absolutely not” provide any bases to the US for military action in Afghanistan, PM Khan told Jonathan Swan.
“Absolutely not. There’s no way we are ever going to allow,” the Pakistan PM said.“Any bases, any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan, absolutely not.”
Pakistan reportedly provided bases to the US in the past, but Islamabad has lately been vocal about denying Washington any bases in the country.
PM Khan confirmed that Central Intelligence Agency chief William J Burns made a visit to Islamabad. He said he didn’t meet him but the head of the ISI did.
The news of the CIA chief’s unannounced visit to Pakistan was reported by the New York Times earlier this month, but it wasn’t officially confirmed by Pakistani officials.
The premier said he was both “happy” and “anxious” over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He explained that he was happy because there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and anxious because the US is leaving the landlocked country without a political settlement and it could lead to a “civil war”.
The US forces will leave Afghanistan by September 11 under a deal signed with the Taliban in Doha last year.
“In case, Taliban go for an all-out victory, there is going to be incredible amount of bloodshed and let me tell you the country that is gonna suffer most after Afghanistan is gonna be Pakistan,” he said.
“We already have three million Afghan refugees here and this could lead to another exodus.”
US President Joe Biden hasn’t spoken to PM Khan after he came to power, the Pakistan premier confirmed. “Whenever he has time he can speak to me but at the moment clearly he has other priorities,” he added.
China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims
“Whatever issues we have with the Chinese, we speak to them behind closed doors,” PM Khan told the interviewer when he asked him to comment on China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.
Human rights groups say China has detained more than one million Uyghurs over the past few years in “re-education camps”.
The US and the western world often accuse China of committing genocide of Uyghurs, a charge China denies.
“China has been one of the greatest friends to us in our most difficult times,” PM Khan said. “When we were really struggling, our economy was struggling, China came to our rescue.”
He objected to the western world’s silence on Indian atrocities in Kashmir and called it “hypocrisy”.
“How come this (Uyghurs) is such a big issue in the western world? Why are the people of Kashmir ignored,” he asked.
India has turned Kashmir into “open prisons” and hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been killed in the valley, the Pakistan premier said.
“Why is that not an issue,” questioned PM Khan before saying, “I think it is hypocrisy.”