Gulalai defends Reham, points finger at Imran’s character

Former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member Ayesha Gulalai has come out in support of Reham Khan over a book controversy that has sparked an altercation between various circles in mainstream and social media.

Gulalai, who had announced to quit the PTI in August last year after levelling allegations of harassment and corruption against party chairman Imran Khan, called on Pakistani women to support Reham after the latter came under fire by the PTI and other prominent personalities over a leaked manuscript of her upcoming autobiography.

The book, titled ‘Reham Khan’, is said to revolve around her marriage to PTI chief Imran Khan, which ended in a divorce mere 15 months later. The book’s manuscript was recently leaked online, which irked several PTI leaders who took to Twitter to accuse her of being part of an “agenda” ahead of the upcoming general election.

“Imran Khan is in moral decline, he has a [questionable] character,” said Gulalai, adding that the PTI chief was “scared” of getting unmasked by the upcoming book.

“[Imran Khan] is using a mafia against Reham, he does not fulfil the requirements of Articles 62 and 63,” the former PTI member claimed.

“He cannot run a government. He gets married, divorces, and then threatens [others] with help of a mafia.”

On Monday, Reham, a former TV presenter, alleged that she was being “bullied” by PTI after the manuscript of her book was “stolen” and leaked to the media.

The same day, a ‘pre-action defamatory protocol’ letter surfaced on the media on behalf of her former husband Ijaz Rehman, former cricketer Wasim Akram, British-Pakistani businessman Zulfi Bukhari and Anila Khawaja, a British-Pakistani activist linked with PTI – citing “defamatory and malicious” content in her upcoming autobiography.

Earlier today, PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry blasted the content of the book as being “vulgar and disgraceful”, and warned Reham that the party would take action against her if she did not take back the content within 24 hours and apologise.