LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Azma Bokhari has said that people who use filthy and abusive language should not be described as Pashtuns, arguing that identifying them with the community amounts to an insult to Pashtuns themselves.
According to an official statement issued on Friday, Bokhari said those who call people “imposed on the Pashtuns” by that name are in fact insulting the Pashtun community.
“These are dirty, despicable savages and, unfortunately, they have been imposed on the Pashtuns,” the minister said in the statement. (The Lahore Times reproduces the remark verbatim because the language used is itself the substance of the news.)
She recalled that when the individuals concerned, along with others she said used similar language, came to Lahore, she had stated at the time that they could not be Pashtuns and that such conduct was the work of savages.
“Thank you for repeatedly proving me right. Do not insult the Pashtuns by calling yourselves Pashtuns,” she said.
The statement was accompanied by what the release described as various statements made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf figures, which the minister shared alongside her remarks. The release did not specify which individuals the minister was referring to, and named no person directly.
The remarks come during a period of intensified confrontation between the Punjab government and the opposition party, conducted increasingly through social media platforms rather than parliamentary forums. Bokhari, who holds the information portfolio, is among the provincial cabinet’s most visible respondents to PTI messaging.
The exchange is unfolding alongside continuing legal pressure on the party’s leadership, with several PTI figures reported to be facing warrant action earlier this week. Further political developments are covered on The Lahore Times’ national desk.
The minister’s phrasing rests on a distinction between the Pashtun community as a whole and specific individuals she says have been wrongly associated with it. Her stated intent, as set out in the release, is to defend the community rather than criticise it.
Political language that invokes ethnic identity, however framed, has historically drawn scrutiny in Pakistan, where provincial and ethnic sensitivities carry weight in public discourse. Media bodies and rights organisations have repeatedly cautioned that dehumanising terminology in mainstream political exchange can harden divisions regardless of the speaker’s intended target.
The statement also arrives as the same department pursues a formal effort against hate content online. Bokhari chaired the fourth meeting of the Information Steering/Review Committee this week, where measures against disinformation, hate content and anti-state propaganda under the revised National Action Plan were reviewed.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had not issued a response to the minister’s remarks at the time of publication. The Lahore Times will update this report if a statement is received.
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