Shireen Mazari asks top political leadership to take stand against online abuse

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari on Tuesday asked all political parties to take a strong stand against online abuse and said that she would also take up the matter with Prime Minister Imran Khan, ARY NEWS reported.

She made these remarks during the meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on Human Rights, headed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The meeting took up the matter of the online harassment of female journalists at the hands of political activists.

Giving briefing to the meeting, Shireen Mazari said that she has faced online harassment multiple times. “Even [PML-N federal lawmaker] Khawaja Asif humiliated me on the floor of the Parliament,” she said.

The PTI lawmaker said that women including female politicians should also refrain from using abusive language.

“Abusive language is not acceptable against anyone,” she said and announced that the government would take action against accounts found involved in online abuse.

The minister said that the government would soon introduce media protection bill in the Parliament and further asked all political parties to take a strong exception against online abuse.

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Shireen Mazari said that woman politicians face difficulty at home whenever they are targeted in online abuse. “Why are you doing politics is the question asked by the family whenever a female politician is targeted online,” she said.

During the meeting, a female journalist claimed that she has been harassed continuously by the officials of the Punjab government online.

Shireen Mazari while condemning any act of harassment at the hands of PTI activists said that they had to find out those elements who are involved in online harassment using the name of PTI.

She further asked political leaders to warn their activists against the act.