Ten months later…
Politicians’ personal lives are private. Politicians don’t have personal lives. Cover politicians’ personal lives but all of them equally. A wide spectrum of views on how the media should have covered – if at all – the divorce of Imran Khan and Reham Khan.
Not that it made any difference. What ruled was what the market wanted. And the market kept on wanting more news of the short-lived marriage. Why? Because Imran Khan is the biggest celebrity in the country, obviously.
And the PTI chairman hadn’t made things easy for himself either, by being very forthcoming about the marriage right from before he got married in the first place. After the marriage, the couple also did the whole Mr-and-Mrs thing in front of audiences on many TV programmes.
A sharp contrast to the Punjab chief minister, who, though far more prolific when it comes to matters matrimonial, is extremely private about them.
When the couple split up, there was a lot of curiosity about what the reason might have been for the divorce; this being Pakistan, all of it was directed at the lady. She was too ambitious and wanted to run the party; she was taking money from ambitious party members who wanted to better their standing with the party chairman to fund her projects etc. Some pundits even went to the extent of saying she was an MI6 agent.
But sometimes, the simplest explanation is the correct one. Perhaps the reason for the split was that they were a mismatch, as human beings. One can piece together this explanation from the dispatches from the front line that we have heard. She said, in a post-divorce interview, that all he wanted to talk about was politics. However, he did not like, we are told from sources close to him, her playing an active role in politics. Perhaps this double-bind would have worked with someone else. But not with Ms Khan, who, having come out of a failed marriage previously, had now become accustomed to not being a Stepford wife.
The PTI’s infamous army of cyber trolls, earlier not tiring from praising her every photo online, were now stooping to using the worst of slurs, which they previously had reserved only for the members of other political parties.
The party, however, should not be held accountable for what its supporters say. For what it is worth, Imran Khan himself asked everyone to refrain from saying anything negative about her.
Ms Khan, after a bidding war between three channels, has started a programme on Neo, titled, tongue-in-cheek, Tabdeeli. At an astronomical compensation package, if the market grapevine is to be believed.
Ms Khan making it to this list next year is unlikely. A reasonably intelligent, well-spoken, articulate lady she might be, but her programme isn’t going to be a huge ratings magnet, barring from whenever she discusses Imran Khan’s personal life. And even that will begin having diminishing returns in due time.