Singer Falak Shabir called on Saturday for action against people who wear “short dresses in the bazaars and streets” of Punjab. While the singer later insisted that he was making a very general statement, his request to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz drew the ire of many people, including some of the CM’s own party members.
Hina Parvez Butt, a lawmaker from Maryam’s PML-N and the chairperson of the Punjab Women Protection Authority, asked when “the minds of people like Falak Shabir will stop fixating on women’s clothing” in a post on X.
She drew a comparison between Pakistan and Turkiye, saying nobody in Istanbul comments on women’s clothes, “but here in Pakistan, anyone who feels like it jumps on social media and starts mouthing off.”
The lawmaker said this mentality was exactly what was keeping Pakistan from progressing. She asked people to do society a “great service” and “mind their own business”.
Shabir made his strange demand in a story posted on Instagram asking “as a father of two daughters” for the CM to make a law against people wearing short dresses. He seemed convinced that not doing so would lead to “cultural ruin”.
