Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan has a close association with Pakistan. Being one of the top actors of Bollywood, famously known as ‘King Khan’, Shahrukh’s family hails from Peshawar. Khan’s father moved from Peshawar to Delhi in search of a better life. Born in India, Khan has travelled to Pakistan on various occasions to meet his family.
Khan’s family in Pakistan has been politically active for many decades, which started with his grandfather as one of the supporters of Bacha Khan. In order to keep up with the familial traditions, Khan’s cousin who is a member of ANP, Noor Jehan, is now planning on running in for a provincial assembly’s seat.
In an interview to a local newspaper, Jehan speaks on politics, her family’s political struggles and her memories with one of world’s famous actor.
Jehan shares that various people have written autobiographies such as Mohammad Ibrahim Zia’s book ‘Peshawar ke Fankaar: Theatre Aur Filmon Main’, on their family, ancestral home and their political struggles. Jehan and Khan’s fathers were brothers, which makes them first cousins.
Their grandfather was part of the peaceful struggle since 1930, which was headed by Bacha Khan.
During their family’s political struggles, Jehan said that on various occasions her entire family would be arrested and jailed due to their association with Bacha Khan. This affected Khan’s father’s education and with the political uncertainty, and continuous arrests he moved to Delhi in 1946.
Khan first visited Pakistan accompanied with his father in 1978, according to Jehan. The second time, Khan visited in 1980 along with his sister, Jehan recalls that they all were teenagers during that time and had a wonderful time together.
During the time of Khan’s struggle, both cousins kept in touch and finally met in 1997 when Jehan travelled to India. Jehan added that Khan was at that time working on his film, ‘Duplicate’. Jehan went to India for the second time to meet Khan in 2011 and hopes to meet him again, but this time she says, it will be difficult to travel to India due to the current political scenario.
She further stated that SRK wishes to visit his ancestral home in Peshawar with his children; however, it looks impossible due to the security issues associated with the locality.
With hopes to meet her cousin again, Jehan is hoping to meet him midway in Dubai.
Jehan stated that she had been associated with ANP for a long time and has received all the political training from her father. Jehan has successfully won during the municipal elections and became the general councillor.
Jehan explained that out of 25 wards, 17 ward members of PK 78 constituency have nominated her name for the provincial assembly seat, which has one seat reserved for a female. So far she hopes that she officially is one of the members standing in the coming elections.
