Leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) criticized a prominent media group on Monday for what they perceived as a concerted effort to malign the party Chairman Imran Khan who is currently held in Adiala Jail in connection with the Toshakhana case.
The PTI leaders’ rebuke follows the airing of a TV show by a private media channel, where Anchorperson Shahzaib Khanzada hosted Khawar Maneka, the former spouse of Bushra Bibi, now Imran Khan’s wife.
In the TV show, Khawar Maneka hurled allegations on Imran Khan on Geo News asserting that he once kicked Imran Khan from his house when Khan visited Bushra before their marriage.
Maneka blamed Imran Khan for the collapse of his 28-year marriage, asserting that Khan ruined it under the pretext of “peer muridi.”
Maneka claimed that Imran Khan would visit his house without consent, and his then-wife, Bushra Bibi, would secretly communicate with Khan through a phone number provided by Farah Gogi.
Maneka also mentioned that Farah Gogi and Zulfi Bukhari, a close aide of Khan, asked him to change the divorce date on papers to support Khan’s political aspirations.
However, it was Zulfi Bukhari who took the social media to respond to the allegations and called out particularly the anchorperson for stooping too low in a bid to target Imran Khan.
“On going …Pakistani politics fallen below the pits,” he wrote on X in a post.
“Gutter show by Shahzeb Khanzada with a known corrupt customs officer. Absolutely shameless things happening just to malign Imran Khan,” he added.
He said the certain people had lost morality and ethics for targeting Imran Khan.
“If doing interviews of those abducted and forced on shows was sad, then this it’s disgraceful. When will we take our heads out the gutter & work towards in fixing a country which needs all the help it can get?,” he questioned.
Hammad Azahar, another PTI leader, wrote on X that “an anchor who for 4 years pretended to be an LNG expert without knowing its basic supply & pricing structure is now doing a staged hostage show on matrimonial issues of former spouses.”
The desperation to target Imran Khan can take some individuals to great depths, he added.
“Today’s interview proved one thing that Pakistan’s number one journalist is Shahzeb, but in the context of moral decline,” another PTI leader Shahbaz Gill said in a post on X formerly Twitter.
He called the TV show as a perfect example of “dirty journalism and despicable conduct”.
The PTI leader said the TV show had exposed the real faces.
