Imran should have been as tolerant as the people he had condemned in past, who have now come to his defense after he was humiliated by his Islamist allies.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=81455
Imran owes an apology to Jemima, ‘brown sahibs’
Jailed former cricketer and politician Imran Khan has surprisingly got unexpected support during these testing times of his life from those whom he had always sarcastically named as “brown sahibs”.
Intriguingly, he was publicly thrashed and humiliated by Islamists, whom he always admired and considered as role models for the youth to follow. The stunning pictures of a protesting Jemima Goldsmith, the ex-wife of Khan, standing outside the Pakistani High Commission, also impressed many Pakistanis. The Khan had disowned Jemima Khan after nine years of their marriage, only to please his newly-found friends in the religious parties as her Jewish background was causing him trouble.
Jemima proved to be more traditional and loyal eastern wife who forgot the past bitter memories to help the father of her children and their country.
The active participation of Jemima Khan in the protest, along with her sons Qasim and Suleman, actually made the agitation in London more newsworthy both for the media and the public. Jemima, who still calls herself a Khan and not a Goldsmith, is a big celebrity in the social circles of London because of being the daughter of a billionaire, the ex-wife of Imran Khan and now the girlfriend of British actor Hugh Grant.
When she came out to protest on the call of her ex-husband, London watched and the media got crazy, although Imran had been targeting British newspapers. Overseas Pakistanis, who had developed distaste for Imran Khan’s unpopular love affair with Qazi Hussain Ahmed and his likes, suddenly felt that their hero was wronged. On the domestic front, Imran never spared the moderate and liberal elements within the Pakistani society as he publicly lashed out at them for their way of life.
He never hid his hostile approach towards the children of these elite studying in influential educational institutions. To further humiliate these young elites, he nicknamed them “brown sahibs” to convey his dislike. These sarcastic attacks on the brown sahibs made Islamists happy and they hijacked Imran to exploit his popularity. He too slipped into their hands with a big smile on his face. To further win the support of these Islamists, Imran even at one stage declared that tribal Jirga system was the best system in the world. He was so fond of introduction of strict Islamic laws that he was fondly considered as “Holier than the Pope”.
Imran even used to criticize moderate writers, journalists and writers in the English press as he always felt that they did not represent the real Pakistan and its people. Imran had never given any serious thought to the children of the elite. His role models were the youths of likes of Islami Jamiat Talaba or those who were championing the cause of the political Islam. That was why, for understandable reasons, Imran chose to lead a student demonstration at the Punjab University instead of LUMS, Lahore, as from the heart of the heart he never appreciated them or took them seriously. His constituency always remained these Islamic parties and their student wings as he blindly trusted them. But, when Imran was thrashed, humiliated and then handed over to the police by his misguided role models, it greatly hurt everybody in and outside Pakistan because he was the hero of the whole nation as a great cricketer.
Then those very brown sahibs were the first to come out on the roads to chant slogans in his favor and condemn the IJT. They proved Imran wrong. The Khan is unlikely to learn any lesson from his humiliation at the hands of his role models as his past track record shows. But one can rightly expect him to stop humiliating these brown sahibs of this country any more. Perhaps he also owes an apology to Jemima Khan.
