It’s a mud fest. Such matters usually are. Ayesha Gulalai’s set of allegations (thankfully not called Gulalaigate – yet) have sparked off a shoutfest on the media.
At the moment, none of the other political parties have thrown their hats into the ring, so it is just the whole of the PTI up against Ayesha Gulalai. But picking up the pitchforks along with the party are some news anchors who are also ganging up on her. It is only on social media where, despite immense opposition, she also has some support. But even this support is mostly by the online activists of anti-PTI parties, not support for her individually; the ANP, for instance, would otherwise find no common ground with a politician from Waziristan who subscribed to Imran Khan’s idea of capitulation to the Taliban, but it’s activists are using Gulalai’s presser as ammunition, as are those from the League.
One agrees with the PTI’s basic argument of innocent-till-proven-guilty; mere allegations don’t prove anything and it would be unfair to Imran Khan to unquestioningly believe them. But that is where my agreement with the PTI ends. For it has responded to the allegations with the most base, vile and misogynist of arguments. Leading this gang of pottymouths, of course, is Fawad Chaudhry, who should be more circumspect, given how she might start a party one day and he, the chameleon that he is, might want to be its spokesperson.
But before we get to Chaudhry, I would like to point out the bizarre skin-in-the-game that ARY feels it has in the whole thing. Whereas Kamran Shahid, Nadeem Malik and probably 70 other anchors claimed that they happened to be hanging around Bani Gala where they witnessed a meeting where Gulalai was denied the party ticket for NA-1, ARY’s “smoking gun” was the mere fact that Geo’s reporters covered the press conference. That is it. That Geo’s reporters covered the presser, there must be something fishy about the whole thing; why was Geo court reporter Abdul Qayyum Siddiqui present at the presser, they asked, as if he was an ARY reporter instead, who had to be reprimanded for covering another reporter’s beat. Why was her father present at the venue for moral support was also one of the questions that seemed to make it fishy for Gulalai!
Post-script: Fawad Chaudhry, who skipped a couple of classes at charm school: “sab inn ki (till a day or two ago, his former party colleague) haisiat ko jaanta hai, . Inn ki haisiat istemaal honai ke liye hoti hai. Chaar saal unn messages ko choosti rehti theen?