“Indian women used to be burned alive (Satti) with the body of her husband if he died,” he said during a ceremony at Fatima Jinnah University in Rawalpindi to celebrate International Women's Day.
PM Imran noted that Pakistan instead was founded in the name of Islam, which grants many rights to women.
He further told the crowd of students that Pakistan had ample laws protecting women's rights, but it was up to the administration and society, including women, to implement them.
"Education is also important along with the protection of their rights," the prime minister added.
Speaking on the issue of second marriage, the prime minister, who has been married three times, called on men to stop abandoning their wives, asserting that women do have rights in the case of divorce.
In the past, PM Imran has attributed sexual assault in Pakistan to women's indecency.
“If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense," he told a journalist during an international television show in 2021.
“What is the concept of purdah? It is to stop temptation. Not every man has willpower. If you keep on increasing vulgarity, it will have consequences," he said earlier that year.