Karachi: Recently the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, told a TV anchor that his allegations against journalist, Najam Sethi, were just a “political statement.” Since last year, Mr Khan had been insisting that Mr Sethi (who was Punjab’s caretaker CM during the May 2013 election), had been instrumental in engineering results in Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)’s favour by applying “35 punctures” (or making sure Mr Khan’s PTI lost in at least 35 seats in Punjab).
Mr Sethi has been vehemently refuting the allegations, suggesting that Mr Khan, who was convinced that he would sweep the election, just couldn’t swallow the defeat his party suffered in Punjab and was now making unsubstantiated allegations. Mr Sethi also lodged a case against Mr Khan. During the proceedings at the SC where the PTI was asked to provide evidence for what it alleges is a “stolen election”, Mr Khan and his lawyers did not mention anything about Mr Sethi and his 35 punctures.
Finally, during a TV interview last week, Mr Khan casually dismissed his own accusation against Mr Sethi as “merely a political statement”. His comment was lambasted in the media and the very next day a senior PTI leader, Dr Arif Alvi, tweeted an apology for PTI’s accusations against Mr Sethi, saying the party had just commented on what it had heard from others. Things then turned even more bizarre when Dr Alvi was derided by some other senior leaders of the PTI for publically rendering an apology, so much so that Dr Alvi then had to actually apologise for apologising! Mr Khan and his party have so far failed to provide any evidence in this regard. And so have the two controversial TV anchors who were echoing Mr Khan’s conspiratorial mantra.
One anchor even claimed that he had a recorded tape that has a conversation in which Mr Sethi himself boasts of having rigged the election in Punjab. Mr Sethi took the anchor to court and no tape emerged. Things continued to get bizarre, though, when after facing severe criticism in the media and from some of his own supporters for confessing that his “35 punctures” allegations were derived from what he had heard from some other people and that the accusation was just a political statement, Mr Khan rebounded to now claim that Mr Sethi did not apply 35 punctures, but 71!
Though by now the media is largely treating his new statement as a farce, commentators have suggested that Mr Khan has become a hostage of bad advice provided to him by his closest associates in the PTI. At least two such commentators claimed that Mr Khan readily believes whatever is fed to him by his close confidants. This is an interesting observation because this is exactly what veteran cricket journalist, Qamar Ahmed, said in Karachi a few months ago. Chatting with me at a party, Qamar was giving us details of a book that he was writing (on his 40-plus-year career as a cricket journalist). He also brought up an episode that former Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad mentioned in his autobiography in which he claimed how in the 1980s, Imran and Qamar almost came to blows in England.
Qamar who was settled in England was the go-to man for most Pakistani cricketers arriving in that country to play county cricket. Mr Khan and Miandad too stayed with Qamar when they began their county careers in the late 1970s and Miandad wrote in his book that this came to an end when Mr Khan and Qamar had a fight.
According to Qamar, the squabble between Imran and him happened during the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “Imran was a great captain, but very vulnerable to rumours,” Qamar told us. He and Imran had been very close, until he bumped into him in the plane that was carrying the Pakistan team during the 1992 World Cup. Qamar said hello to him only to receive an order to stay away from the team. Taken aback, Qmar responded in kind. Meanwhile, Javed — who was sitting on one of the seats in the row that separated an angry Imran from a seething Qamar — jumped up and rapidly moved towards Qamar, telling him “Iss sey duur raho, Qamar Bhai, chor doh…” (stay away from him, let it be).
According to Qamar, Miandad intervened again when Mr Khan and Qamar were about to clash again at the baggage claim area, and this time Miandad said, “Yaar Qamar Bhai, aap koh bola tha iss sey duur raho…!” (I told you to stay away from him, Qamar Bhai.) Later, Miandad informed Qamar that some journalist had told Imran that after Imran’s team had lost a game and Khan had gotten injured, Qamar was seen dancing. Qamar told Miandad that nothing of the sort ever happened, but Miandad kept telling him, “Chor den, Qamar Bhai, chor den…” As a consequence, on Imran’s instructions, Qamar Ahmed, the most senior Pakistani cjournalist, was boycotted by the Pak team.
It took another 10 years for the misunderstanding to clear. Qamar says that in the early 2000s, long after Mr Khan had become a politician, he met Qamar and finally apologised to him. Qamar said, “He saw me, but I ignored him. But he approached me, smiling, and said, forget about it Qamar, it was just a misunderstanding…”
Yes, just like that.
By arrangement with Dawn
