- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The reputed Time magazine on Tuesday (4) published a cover story on former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan in its latest edition, putting his picture on the title page and captioning it: ‘The Astonishing Saga of Imran Khan’. But not all the leader’s supporters were happy.
Like any other article carried by western publications, the piece on the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician also featured praise and criticism with analysis of the current situation in the South Asian nation and projecting the future, both for the country and Khan.
The magazine also did an interview with Khan on Zoom and published it not in a question-answer format but by using quotes throughout the article, some to highlight the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supremo’s achievements and some to back claims on aspects where he allegedly failed.
Khan’s supporters were not impressed with such an approach and slammed the magazine and the author, Charles Campbell.
One PTI supporter by the name of Maaz Ud Din wrote on Twitter, “@TIME‘s article on @ImranKhanPTI reeks of Eurocentrism.
They’ve written a typical commentary that does not beyond the West’s binary, myopic & fallacious view of the Muslim world.
The content of the article itself is flawed, objectionable & contemptuous.”
?@TIME‘s article on @ImranKhanPTI reeks of Eurocentrism.
They’ve written a typical commentary that does not beyond the West’s binary, myopic & fallacious view of the Muslim world.
The content of the article itself is flawed, objectionable & contemptuous. pic.twitter.com/RBt8SihLFl— Maaz Ud Din | معاذ الدین (@syed_maazuddin) April 4, 2023
Another supporter by the name Bia Agha said the article displayed “the orientalist art of obfuscating facts and hiding disdain under a cloak of objectivity,” Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
Opponents of PTI also highlighted Khan’s flaws mentioned in the article and one of them said the article blamed the former prime minister only for Pakistan’s economic woes.
The Time article projected Khan’s position that only elections can put an end to the bitter political divide that Pakistan is suffering from.
“Political stability in Pakistan comes through elections,” Khan was quoted as saying in the interview. “That is the starting point for economic recovery.”
The article, however, said that Pakistan is “the world’s fifth most populous country,” which “has only $4.6 billion in foreign reserves —$20 per citizen”, indicating that this crisis cannot be solved by the elections alone.
“If they default, and they can’t get oil, companies go bust, and people don’t have jobs, you would say this is a country ripe for a Bolshevik revolution,” Cameron Munter, a former US envoy to Pakistan, told Time.
The article pointed out the former Pakistani prime minister incorrectly blamed Washington for bringing down his government which fell in April 2022. It also highlighted his statement favouring the Taliban, his efforts to move closer to countries such as Russia and China and his disagreements with the Joe Biden administration.
