Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has courted controversy over his comments on rape during a television interview, where he said a scantily clad woman would have an impact on men “unless they’re robots”.

Imran Khan said the concept of purdah(covering) is to avoid temptation in society. “We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs, so it is a completely different society, way of life here, so if you raise temptation in society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society”.

Asked whether what a woman wears acts as a temptation, the prime minister said: If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact, it will have an impact on the men unless they’re robots. I mean it’s common sense”.

To a further poser on whether a woman’s clothing really provokes acts of sexual violence, he said: “It depends on which society you live in. If in a society where people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will have an impact on them.

“If you grow up in a society like you, maybe it won’t on you. This cultural imperialism, whatever is in our culture, must be acceptable to everyone else, it’s not,” he added.

Obviously, social media didn't take this well.

Journalist Gharidah Farooqi described her reaction to the premier's words as "disgusted," "appalled" and "outraged."

Journalist Shahmir Sanni didn't see the PM's justification as legitimate. "Nearly every woman that has been raped in Pakistan has worn what he would prescribe as modest clothing," he wrote on Twitter.

(SAM)