Truth or dare?

The allegations levelled by former PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai Wazir both against Imran Khan and the PTI leadership need to be treated with the utmost seriousness, especially considering the rampant misogyny in our society. There are, of course, valid and legitimate questions that can and have been raised regarding Gulalai’s statements – and they can be further investigated at the relevant forum. Unfortunately, the reaction from the PTI to an issue it should have taken seriously has made it difficult for that to happen. Members of the party immediately began to slime Gulalai’s reputation and accused her of all the usual motivations ascribed to women who speak out about harassment. From calling her allegations a non-issue to threatening to go to tribal jirgas against her to threatening a ‘demolition of her house’ to flatly refusing to appear before a parliamentary committee regarding the issue, the PTI’s attitude has been one of denial and aggression. Add to this the fiasco of PTI’s Naeemul Haq first apparently tweeting out a confession that he had indeed asked Gulalai to marry him, then deleting the said tweet and then claiming he had been ‘hacked’ and we don’t get a pretty picture of ‘Naya Pakistan’.

For its own political, moral, ethical sake, the PTI needs to prove these allegations wrong either before court or in parliament – or both. That the party leader has categorically refused to appear before a parliamentary committee also shows the esteem he holds the institution in. We must also note that Ayesha Gulalai had alleged rampant corruption in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, something CM KP Pervaiz Khattak casually brushed off in a press conference after she went public. The party has instead accused her of corruption. The unfortunate fact is that worries about corruption in the province are constantly being voiced and have always been ignored by the party. It is because of this attitude that respected figures like Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, former KP accountability chief Lt Gen (r) Hamid Khan and others have either left the party or distanced themselves from it. It is no secret that the PTI has made a habit of launching attacks on people without backing them up. Ironically, even in condemning Gulalai for making unsubstantiated allegations, the PTI – and its leader – vilified her virtually as a sleeper agent of the PML-N but did not provide any proof for this.  Members of the PTI and its horde of online supporters have consistently used disgraceful language in attacking her. Gulalai has claimed that Imran himself directs his party people to troll and abuse opponents. We have seen this reflected in the sort of language he uses for opponents and in the vile language used by the party’s spokesperson against Gulalai. If this is what happens to female politicians who dare to speak against Naya Pakistan, where do mere mortals stand?