Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday backed a tit-for-tat response to incidents of assault across the province, saying she had advised victims to respond to their attackers in the same manner.
Speaking at an Honhaar scholarship and laptop distribution ceremony at a university in Mandi Bahauddin, she said no one involved in wrongdoing would be spared, even if they belonged to her own party.
Rejecting the use of fear as a governing tool, she stressed the need for consistency in principles, saying that ruling through intimidation did not constitute good governance.
Referring to the death of an orphaned teenager in Multan after a man ran him over, Maryam said the incident continued to trouble her. She also mentioned recent cases involving an assault on a woman riding a scooty in Lahore and violence against a petrol pump employee.
In the Lahore incident, video footage showed a motorcyclist overtaking a female scooter rider on a busy road, blocking her way and violently assaulting her. Police arrested the suspect with the help of footage and data obtained from dozens of cameras operated by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA).
However, a Lahore court directed that he be released if he was not required in any other case.
In another incident, a man assaulted an employee at a Jubilee Town petrol station after the worker asked him not to smoke on the premises while refuelling his vehicle.