PBC under fire for publishing sexist quotes about women in official diary

LAHORE - Hassan Niazi, lawyer and visiting faculty member at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) shared a picture of a page in Punjab Bar Council’s official diary that had a gender discriminatory quote penned at the top

He tweeted: “This is a quote from the official diary of the Punjab Bar Council (PBC). The casual sexism and misogyny that female lawyers in Pakistan face is on display. All such quotes should be removed at once. ”

The quote can be roughly translated as: “Nations that allot more than an adequate freedom to women end up regretting it at some point.”

https://twitter.com/HNiaziii/status/1047040761450106880

In response, Lawyer Haider Imtiaz shared another page of the diary which featured a quote of similar nuances: “While it is difficult to live with a woman, it is more difficult to live without one.”

https://twitter.com/mhaiderimtiaz/status/1047151689063702528

Nida Usman, academic and founder of the think tank LEARN shared another page of the diary saying, “Beat this”.

“All mothers love their children, even the ones who do not have any children”.

https://twitter.com/NidaUsmanCh/status/1047236551686717441

Earlier, the Executive Chairperson of the Punjab Bar Council (PBC) Advocate Bushra Qamar, who called the quote in the diary "propaganda." "How can a body that upholds the dignity of women ever endorse such a statement?" said Qamar. "How can a body that appointed me its Chairperson espouse these values? It is impossible that we would print this. This is propaganda."

The chairperson conceded that she had not actually seen the diary in question. She continued: "We would never intentionally print this. If this is true and if this was printed, we will take necessary action against those who allowed this to happen."

Qamar further said that during the last five years the council had elected two women as its vice chairperson and chairperson.

But afterwards, PBC's chairperson wrote to the Council of Islamic Ideology seeking its comments regarding a statement related to women that have been published in the Bar Council's 2018 diary.