Journalist and writer Rehman Khan, who had recently come under personal attack for her scathing book against ex-husband and newly-elected prime minister Imran Khan, has come back with a new way to express her opinion on the Pakistan government –through a series of Facebook lives called ‘440 Volts with Reham Khan’.
Khan, who had released her autobiography on 12 July, which presented her former husband in a fairly negative light, conducted the first of the Facebook live sessions on Monday, 17 September.
Khan opened the live with the comment that although she wished to answer a lot of questions about politics in Pakistan under the new regime, TV channels had allegedly been refrained and persecuted for airing her interviews.
Through the course of the live, she touched upon some important and controversial topics affecting the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
On Media Censorship
"Baat karna itna haraam hai (Talking against the government has become such a taboo) that if any anchors of Pakistani news channels try to speak with me or interview me, the government will rage down on them,” she said.
Talking about media censorship in Imran Khan’s “Naya Pakistan”, she said that the industry was going to suffer as there would now be a strict control over what can or cannot be aired to the public.
There is so much censorship. Journalists will not have any freedom anymore.Reham Khan
On IMF Refusing Funds
Speaking about Pakistan’s struggle in receiving funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Khan said that Imran Khan wasn’t doing anything to bring about a change in the “grey-listed” tag that they had put on the country for "global terror finance”.
Instead of handing over acclaimed terrorists like Hafeez Saed, she said, Imran had lifted the ban on the latter and instead filed FIRs against human rights activist Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen.
IMF told you ages ago that you are grey-listed. You lifted the ban on Hafiz Saeed and instead you filed an FIR against an activist like Manzoor Pashteen. If you are supporting the people that IMF, America and other foreign powers have asked you to not support – people like Hafeez Saeed – then how do you expect to get funds from the IMF?Reham Khan
On Afghan Refugees & Racial Profiling
Speaking about racial profiling, Khan said that despite Imran’s claim that the process which was rampant during former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s regime would be done away with in the “Naya Pakistan”, the truth was something else altogether.
She claimed that under the PTI-led government, the persecution of “pashtuns”, an Iranic ethnic group, who hail from Afghanistan, has been fourfold. Despite Imran’s recent claim that the 1.5 million Afghan refugees would receive the same rights under the shariat, as the rest of the civilians born in Pakistan, they were still being treated as refugees and were being sent back to war-ridden Afghanistan.
If there was a war, it isn’t because of a pashtun (refugees from Afghanistan). It wasn’t because of a civilian. When the taliban came and destroyed us, it wasn’t their fault.Reham Khan
In 2016, over 60,000 Afghan refugees were sent back to Afghanistan, she said.
On Atif Mian’s Appointment & Removal
The new government had recently come under attack from global powers for removing Professor Atif Mian, a distinguished economist at Princeton University from its Economic Advisory Council, only because he belonged to the minority Ahmadiyya faith.
“It was you (Imran Khan), who had created an anti-Ahmediyyan statement,” said Khan.
You (Imran Khan) didn’t have the guts to back him when certain factions began to oppose him on the basis of his faith. You did exactly what everyone has been accusing you of. You are a puppet for the army. And you have made this your reputation overseas as well.Reham Khan
Khan’s next episode on ‘440 Volts with Reham Khan’ is expected to be streamed on Facebook within the next couple of days. Although she received significant backlash for her choice of topics in the first episode, as can be seen through the comments on the live itself, she remained undeterred and asked her watchers to keep their eye out for the same.
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