Tell-all memoir by Imran wife may derail his plans

A tell-all memoir by Imran Khan’s second wife is causing uproar in Pakistan and threatens to derail the former cricketer’s campaign to be elected prime minister next month, media reports said.

Reham Khan, 45, a journalist, married the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chairman in 2015 but the couple divorced less than a year later. She has said the book will reveal details about their marriage and the inner workings of Pakistani politics.

Reham claims to have been harassed for months by members of her former husband’s party seeking to scupper the release, which PTI officials claimed was part of a ploy by Imran’s rivals to ruin his hopes of winning the national elections scheduled for 25 July.

Purported extracts of the book, which Reham says were stolen by hackers, were leaked to the Pakistan media this week, leading the author to seek an injunction to prevent further releases.

Some of those allegedly mentioned in the book have sought legal action to permanently block its release, claiming its contents contained a “litany of malicious, false, incorrect, highly misleading, callous, wanton, tortious, prejudicial, damaging, libellous and defamatory” imputations.

Reham, a former BBC weather presenter, told Pakistan’s Geo TV she was being bullied by her former husband’s supporters. “[They] have chosen the wrong woman to go after,” she said. “I will not tolerate baseless allegations by PTI. I challenge PTI to prove a single allegations against me.”

She told India’s CNN18 television network the book focused on “sexual coercion and how it is used, how sexual favours are used for political positions, for media positions, and some of them are directly related to PTI”.

She did not say that Imran had engaged in sexual harassment but claimed he had direct involvement in “nepotism or favours which have nothing to do with merit”. Reham fled to London in February alleging she was receiving death threats.

A Punjab province court on Tuesday temporarily stayed the publication of the book, which was expected to be released before the July polls, which are shaping up to be the most competitive elections in the country for years.

Imran, who captained the Pakistan team that won the World Cup in 1992, was a mainstay of the London tabloids during the 1980s for his playboy lifestyle and marriage to the socialite Jemima Goldsmith. But in the mid-1990s he returned to Pakistan and became a populist politician.

His supporters allege the book falsely maligns him as a liar and hypocrite who feigns religious faith. PTI supporters fear such allegations or claims of infidelity could hurt Imran’s appeal among Pakistan’s conservative urban middle-class.