Daily Times

Sir: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is often criticised for shunning women from running province affairs at the ministerial level; there is no female minister in the 12-member cabinet. In fact, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has even eliminated the ministry on women’s affairs. Against this backdrop, when the PTI chairman’s wife, Reham Khan, is appointed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government as the ambassador for street children, we should celebrate the occasion, not question her appointment.
The PTI has long been claiming that it is not a ‘family’ party and does not believe in heredity politics wherein party head’s relatives control the party and government affairs. Earlier, Imran Khan openly criticised his political rivals, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, for running their respective parties as family businesses, appointing relatives and cronies to lucrative positions. Both Nawaz and Asif were questioned on the involvement of their daughters, Maryam Nawaz and Asifa Zardari, in different government related activities. In fact, Maryam was heading a government-sponsored youth loan programme till recently but was removed on the LHC’s orders. Let us forget and put aside the PTI’s criticism of other party heads for promoting their children and also ignore why there is no woman minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s cabinet. Let us welcome Reham Khan to a specially created post.
Please forgive me for asking one last troubling question: has the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government ever given this much respect to a now-forgotten daughter of the province, Malala Yousafzai? Any idea why the launch of her biography was stopped by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government?
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail
Saudi Arabia