Yet another misogynistic political maneuver came forward as Aamir Liaquat put up a tasteless tweet featuring Senator Sherry Rehman and MMA Owais Norani. The tweet was swiftly deleted, but not before copies were made and circulated in the digital world.
Imran Khan gave ticket to low life Amir Liaquat in Karachi and he won through rigging. Look at his Naya Pakistan views. Every PTI supporter should be ashamed pic.twitter.com/Z60sIwsEc7 — Sidrah Memon (@SidrahMemon1) August 1, 2018
Sherry Rehman had to say the following in response:
For all tastelesstweeters who post salaciously cropped photos or make inappropriate remarks about women in politics,I feel your pain when u are asked to delete.But,none of these dirty tricks deterred SMBenazirBhutto. She taught me to make my words count,not the state of my veil. — SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) August 1, 2018
Following which, Aamir Liaquat sought to clarify that the distasteful remark was intended towards MMA Norani, not Sherry Rehman.
Twitter didn’t delete my tweet, I deleted it myself cause I later realized it might look bad for you. I have respect for you because of the issues you raised in NA when I was there too. It is a misunderstanding, I was targeting MMA Owais Norani, not you.I apologise @sherryrehman — Aamir Liaquat Husain (@AamirLiaquat) August 1, 2018
In light of this misogynistic tweet, it is interesting to note and compare the political caliber of the two politicians:
1) Education:
When it comes to Aamir Liaquat’s education, it is quite honestly hard to keep track of his fake degrees. In a very much televised reveal, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan declared Liaquat’s BA degree in Islamic Studies to be fake. Consequently, his claims of having an MA and Ph.D. degree were also falsified. Interestingly, Liaquat also claimed he is an MBBS doctor having acquired that degree in 1995 as well. This automatically became a false claim considering one cannot be enrolled in two universities at once. Dizzy yet? Let’s leave it there, but with the unfortunate knowledge that Liaquat did not end his tirade of fake degrees there. Senator Rehman, on the other hand, has a real B.A Degree in Political Science from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She also is also an M.A in art history from the University of Sussex. Her education also includes giving back to the people as she served as the chairperson of the Jinnah Institute, which she founded herself as well.
2) Political and Professional Careers
Professionally, we all know Aamir Liaquat to be the face behind “Aalim Online”. He first came into the limelight as a televangelist, hosting a string of religious programs on several channels. And let’s just say he didn’t exactly have the most smooth sailing ride on TV with his religious opinions and often downright insane declarations. These include incidents such as the time he said Pakistan lost a cricket match because the players were disrespectful in wearing shoes with green soles. He called this an affront to Islam, which had us all questioning his sanity as to how a mere color can become synonymous with disrespecting a religion at all. Senator Rehman on the other hand has a long list of enviable credentials as a writer, editor, and journalist. Amongst other things, she also served as the editor-in-chief of The Herald and was also a member of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors. She is also a published co-author. Liaquat entered politics in 2002, with a party ticket from MQM. He was the Minister of Religious Affairs till 2007, when he was asked to resign from both the position and from his seat in the NA. In 2008, he was expelled from MQM. Moreover, in February 2017, an Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan instructed the authorities to put his name on the Exit Control List, after Liaquat was charged with facilitation of hate speech. And, lo and behold, this man with many professional and political controversies has now won the elections under PTI’s banner from NA-245. Naya Pakistan, what? Politically, Rehman started off at the same time as Liqauat in 2002. But her political career so far makes her a far more seasoned politician and diplomat as compared to Liaquat. She became a member of the NA from a party ticket awarded to her by the PPP. Since being in politics, she has held various prestigious offices. She served as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Minister for Culture, Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States, and then finally as the first female Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in March 2018. She also has several internationally recognized awards under her belt during her run as a journalist and politician so far.
3) Controversies
One does not even know where to begin with Amir Liaquat as controversies seem to follow him like a persistent shadow. Whether it was the infamous ‘aam khaye ga’ scandal or handing out babies in his TV show or his tirade of profanities off air during a religious show, Liaquat has been in the negative limelight one too many times. Moreover, he is often held responsible for propagating anti-ahmadi rhetoric in society, something he has also gotten in trouble with the law for. He seems to have had more than one run in with PEMRA over questionable televised content as well. And the Senator Rehman incident is the just the latest cherry on top of a cake iced with controversies. Senator Rehman, on the other hand, was held in controversial light in an alleged blasphemy case in 2010. She had tabled a bill to abolish death penalty for blasphemy, which surprise surprise, did not sit well with some self-assigned defenders of the faith. These three things make it apparent how a seasoned politician functions vs. someone who is just embroiled in controversy all their time. And sure, while we can give him the benefit of the doubt as to the initial target of the tweet, we fail to believe that Liaquat was actually missed Rehman’s presence in the photo entirely. And even if he did, his apology means nothing because of the daftness of his tweet, which is far from appropriate for someone affiliated at a formal level with the PTI. Or, any other political party for that matter. Aamir Liaquat is notoriously famous for his questionable behavior on national television, and now Twitter seemingly will be graced with his often insane opinions as well. Just wondering though, does he not realize that his social media imprint has and will continue to effect his political career negatively.