Climate Minister Sherry Rehman has issued a clarification as to why she smiled through Khawaja Asif speech containing inappropriate language against female parliamentarians.

“They [women of the PTI] are leftover ruins. They are leftover waste. [PTI’s] garbage is left over which needs to be cleaned,” Asif said on Tuesday during a joint session of the Parliament in Islamabad.

However, cameras had caught Rehman sitting in the row behind Asif with Pakistan People’s Party leader Naveed Qamar. Criticism had been levelled at her for smiling through the speech even though women were being targeted.

However, Sherry’s defence was that she was not even listening to Asif.

In a tweet, Rehman said she was ‘sharing some points on the passage of our National Adaptation Plan’ with a fellow member of parliament.

She added that she was not listening to the ‘noise’ in the parliament and only caught the ‘tail end of Asif’s speech thinking it was ‘usual political match’.

However, Rehman’s clarification went beyond just explaining why she had not listened and added what she would have done if she actually had listened.

“I would have intervened to stop women Parliamentarians from being insulted,” she wrote adding that she did not know the remarks were women specific.

She also wrote that she was very pleased at getting approval of the cabinet for her plan after a lot of hard work.

“Had I heard the remarks of course I would have intervened. My bad,” she said.