Ever since the editor of this paper ran a story regarding the separation of the PTI chairman from his wife, a shoal of sharks swam into the fray and tried to dispel the news of the divorce more feverishly than the most zealous of mothers-in-law.
It is all well and good for party members to do damage control till the dust settles, but some journalists were also taking it upon themselves to do so. Though there might be an English proverb to the effect, but nothing seems to have more bang-for-the-buck than the Urdu begaany ki shadi mein Abdullah deewana.
Now that the news has been confirmed to be true, they have made apologies neither about their rather emphatic denials nor of the personal attacks on the editor of this paper.
One columnist, who is always at pains to announce how close he is to Imran Khan, while acknowledging the veracity of the news, said it was still not right for such a senior journalist — who had once broken the news of GIK’s dismissal of the BB government — to be taking credit for breaking news stories of marriages and divorces.
To that gentleman: well, there was once a politician called Benazir Bhutto. She had gotten married once. That had a slight effect on the country’s history.
To each our own in deciding what is worth covering and what isn’t.
*****
It’s a man’s world, no doubt. The times have never been good for women; they might have gotten better, but, in absolute terms, they’ve never been good.
Domestic violence is only one of the many things women have to deal with. Wife-bashers are more common than one would think.
But in Reham Khan, we’ve seen a reversal of roles. Well-placed sources say that she actually slapped Imran Khan. Ironic, since she had accused her previous husband, an NHS doctor in the UK, of domestic violence, a charge he vehemently denies till this day.
But that is only the most extreme of the lady’s problems. She would constantly be checking his cell phone and snooping on it. Then, there is her insistence that her children should be shifted to the UK. And then, finally, there was the acceptance of donations to finance some of her projects, like the much talked about upcoming film that she was producing.
These donations were coming from individuals within the party that wanted to better their place.
Imran Khan was perturbed to the extent that he told a confidant that his life had become like a “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Go figure.
