As a damage control measure, the sale of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s book, Pakistan, with a map showing Kashmir as a part of India, has been stopped by the party activists, who have picked all book’s copies from the market, Pakistan Today learnt on Monday.
Around 300 books had been sold out when suddenly PTI decided to stop the book’s sale and lift the remaining copies of the book from book stores. “All books were picked up from the market because of the presence of a controversial map in the book, which showed the occupied Kashmir as a part of India,” disclosed a source.
Political parties, educationists and the youth have stormed Imran Khan’s book with criticism, demanding the PTI leader to clarify his stance by addressing the public. The book’s demand had surged, especially among the youth, when they came to know about the controversial map in the book. However, to their disappointment, the book is not available in the market now.
The book’s sale continued for 10 days, not only in Pakistan but outside the country, including UK where its launching ceremony was held. The book’s sale, however, continues outside Pakistan.
The book contains around 390 pages, divided into 10 chapters. Imran had dedicated this book to his sons Suliman, Kasim and the youth of Pakistan. The book is on the personal history of Imran, including rare pictures of Imran and his ex-wife, parents, national heroes, some cricketers and his relatives. According to Geography professors and map experts, the two maps displayed in the books had four glaring technical errors: 1) occupied Kashmir was shown as a part of India, 2) parts of Kashmir held by China were not mentioned clearly, 3) in a small map, Kashmir was displayed in Indian colour, 4) Junnagarh and Manavadar, two states which announced their affiliation with Pakistan but India occupied it forcefully, were also shown as a part of India.
Punjab government spokesman Pervaiz Rashid condemned Imran Khan, saying he was a man with “double standards”, who just wanted to “please the west and India”. He said Imran was doing just a “drama” by stopping his book’s sale. He said that a man who “could not deal with a map” could not run the affairs of an entire state.
Former MNA and JI leader Farid Paracha said the government should seek an explanation from Imran over this mistake. He said that Imran should publicly clarify his stance on Kashmir.
A PU Geography Department teacher, Munawer Sabir, said that Kashmir was believed to be one of the hot spots of the world as it was the meeting point of three nuclear powers; India, Pakistan and China, who were partners on this issue. He said that Pakistan never changed its policy on Kashmir, while international writers also showed Kashmir as a disputed territory. He said the matter could not be resolved by simply stopping the book’s sale; Imran should settle the matter with the publisher.
Citizen, Aagha Javaid, said the book was impressive, however the map disheartened him. He said it was beyond his understandings why did not Imran countercheck the book’s maps. He said it was an attempt to “gratify an anti-Pakistan lobby”. Insaaf Students Federation (ISF) President Farrukh Habib said it was the publisher’s mistake and Imran could not do such a mistake as he was “pro-Pakistan”. PTI Information Secretary Umer Cheema said that Transworld Publishers, who published PTI leader’s books, withdrew the book, as it was their mistake and Imran had no concern with the mistake.
Everyone says Imran Khan is a fool and confused person.
No wonder..
Now the wise people of this country will judge Khan on the printing error of the map. Indeed it is an uphill task to know Imran Khan's intentions. Pointing fingers at Imran Khan also is so easy. This country is full of critics.
Imran Khan is the greatest leader of Pakistan. His stance on kashmir is very clear. please watch recent (Sept 23, 2011) Imran Khan's Media Conference in UK.
Pervaiz Rasheed is typical PML-N member who is afraid of PTI's popularity. In fact Nawaz Sharif' PMLN is full of double standards. they sat in opposition but supported corrupt govt of PPP because they had share in the system.
Imran Khan will clarify the MAP mistake.
u are hero?
Lets face it. Pakistam will never get Kashmir and frankly speaking i dont even want it to be part of Pakistan.
forget it, it's just a map! what about the book? has one one read it yet??
Pakistan is never without Kashmir because it is very impotant for Pakistan and its people. Mr. Imran khan Clerify it.
Imran Khan is our only hope…whatever the issues with the map.. it does not change the fact that he s the only accomplished, credible person left in politices today. If Zardari of all people can be President, Imran Khan most certainly deserves a chance.
Really?? Just for a misprinted map?? Even if it was intentional, why such a huge backlash? Kashmir deserves independence and should not be a part of any of the big 3. Why do Pakistanis, in this day and age, think of Kashmir as theirs and make it such an ego issue? Whats the point? I will feel sorry for Kashmir if it ever became a part of Pakistan; we will do to them what we did to East-Pakistan (Bangladesh). Imran Khan might not be ideal, no one is, but he is best chance Pakistan has right now.
its the publishers fault u stupid peope imran has nothing to do with how the publisher prints the map, they have apologised to imran & are willing to replace all copies of the book
imran khan pti zindabad
just a food for thought, how come Kashmirs who are fighting for their freedom, would want to get into another countries rule. Thats out of the frying pan into the frying pan.
Apart from Imran Khans view on Kashmir, there is something else which controls the dynamics around Kashmir and that is money. Kashimir is as issue which should be there so that the armed forces on both sides get major chunk of budget while education food and health get the least. This is like America would always need an enemy to keep their huge military complex running. Starting from World wars, cold war, vietnam, Korea, gulf and now war against terrorism. America has always in a war and will be! Why, to keep its huge war related industry running. Similarly we need a conflict to justify keeping the military spending. Kashmir is one of such issue!
So Imran Khan views on Kashmir do not matter and it is very important to understand all of this.
lolz…. That proclaimed offender pervaiz rasheed is barking like hell to defame imran khan and PTI….
Fuck Kasmir, what did they do for the paki's.
These guys cant find anything to defame Imran Khan hence they will take even a misprint to create an issue.
Don’t worry, Imran will change the map of PML N in the next elections too. They conveniently forget Shahbaz Sharifs comment about greater Punjab when his elder brother was in power.
Well said "double standard" and "a man who “could not deal with a map” could not run the affairs of an entire state"….wah wah wahhhhhh
Imran has shown maturity and common sense. The occupied Kashmir was never ours. The very name is a testimony to that. We had illegally seized it from India. The sooner the realization dawns upon us the better.
OHHHHHHHH HE IS DRUNK PERSON HE DO ALL ACTIVITIES AFTER DRINKING. IMRAN WHAT BRAND YOU DRINK NOW A DAYS.
Imran khan is great hero.
Its just print error.
Kindly refer to the link given below. It clearly shows that India received a copy with Kashmir shown as a part of Pakistan. The publishers then recalled the copies to change the map for that batch of the book which was for India. To take care of the sales in India. So this printing error is the publisher's fault. Stop crticizing him and do some research be4hand. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2473…
OK, if it was a mistake, why Mr. Imran Khan has not come out with a categorical statement himself?
Such mistakes are not expected and can not be accepted from a leader who has worked hard for 15 years and is now gaining popularity among masses. By making such critical mistakes he can slip down the ladder
Imran has cleared this printing error very categorically during an interview. It was a printing error!!.
I am a Pakistani and would love to see Kashmir, considering its geographical importance, being part of Pakistan.
On a side note, can someone show me a SINGLE map which is not published in Pakistan and where Kashmir is shown part of Pakistan. Believe me you wont find it- it's same as now you do not find Palestine on the map except as a part of Israel. Pls admit the realities, our political parties have done just the politics on this issue and have never made any serious efforts to resolve it. And this makes an another classical example of our diplomatic failure.
For people like Pervaiz Rasheed I was once told that when a dog barks we are *not supposed to bark back at it, instead either we kick it or just ignore it. I will take the second option.
PML (N) has now nothing else to do other then finding some thing against Imran Khan. they have failed miserably and will vanish in the forth coming general elections. Imran Khan is our last hope and we all must support him.
All i can say is Cricket and Politics are two different things.. Politics is about getting everyone along, not about criticizing everyone.. PK need a politician that can remove the differences, not prolong them.. He criticizes everyone and no one criticizes him only because he hasn’t stepped in yet.. Its just a matter of time until we see blunders made by him (though i don’t wish it).. And history says that PK has done a lot better under the governance of Armed forces..
What a lame excuse they made that it was a printing error.. Look at it this way: why was only Kashmir misprinted..? why did it go to India, it could have been misprinted as a self sovereign estate..? why were the actual boundaries misprinted and not only a little area..? Hope the SUPREME COURT looks into this matter…
over all imran khan is a real patriotic dont be think any of any perception against him….
he is all the way all the time great man…..
Abdul Waheed
Comments are closed.