Reham memoir could hit Imran poll chances
Punjab court delays book by ex-wife said to malign politician aiming to be country’s prime minister
Atell-all memoir by Imran Khan’s second wife is causing uproar in Pakistan and threatens to derail his campaign to be elected prime minister next month.
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.
She told India’s CNN18 TV 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”.