Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said on Monday that those who dared to “raise their hand against a helpless woman” would suffer the same fate.

“Dare to raise your hand against a helpless woman who leaves her home every day to earn an honest living, and be prepared to face the same humiliation. She will have the right and the opportunity to slap you back,” she said in a post on the social media platform X.

Her comments came in response a video of a man physically assaulting a sales girl at Kohinoor Plaza in Faisalabad. According to a statement from Faisalabad police, the girl had informed the man that the shop was exclusively meant for females; CCTV footage shared by police on X showed that it was a lingerie shop.

Police said the “enraged” man then physically assaulted the girl, with CCTV footage showing him yanking her from behind the counter and eventually throwing her to the ground. The statement added that the suspect had been arrested and legal proceedings had been initiated against him.

According to the information shared in a visual post by the Punjab chief minister, the incident took place on Nov 8. It added that the shop owner had come to the store to collect rent, when the girl asked him to contact the business owner.

“No one, no matter how wealthy, influential, or powerful, can now intimidate, exploit or harm an ordinary citizen with impunity. The state will stand firmly with the vulnerable and respond decisively to those who misuse their power,” CM Maryam asserted on X, also sharing a video of the alleged victim hitting the suspect in question.

“The days of the powerful getting away with abusing the powerless are over. The state will hit back!” she said.

Last month, CM Maryam also took notice of a man who physically assaulted a woman riding a scooty on Mozang Ring Road in Lahore.

At the time, she said he had spoken to the victim and told her “she should slap the man as many times as he had slapped her”.

“But she said that, for her, it was enough that the government had made her feel protected, cared for, and assured that justice was on her side,” CM Maryam said. She had later also expressed displeasure at the suspect being granted bail.

In a similar incident last month, a man was accused of assaulting a petrol pump employee in Lahore. CM Maryam then shared a video of the employee slapping the arrested suspect while a cop attempted to stop him.

“This is a tight slap in the face of those entitled, spoiled brats who look down upon the poor as if they were lesser human beings,” CM Maryam said.

“They arrogantly believe that money and power put them above the law, allowing them to exploit, intimidate, and act with impunity,” she added.

The chief minister declared that she stood “firmly with the oppressed, regardless of how powerful their oppressors may be”.