Jemina Khan sees endless contradictions

Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, has described Pakistan society as an entity of endless contradictions, and is gravely concerned about current turbulent situation in that country.

Ms. Khan, who is in Pakistan with her two sons and staying with Imran at his Islamabad residence, is of the view that Pakistani society, is hostile and hospitable, euphemistic and unambiguous, spiritual and prescriptive, aggressor and victim. Mr. Khan says that she is visibly perplexed over the sudden change in Pakistan’s condition, and upset by the worsening scenario. Remembering the days when she spent most of her 20’s in Islamabad, she said the city was considered an ideal family posting for foreign diplomats, green and clean and offering an easy life, if a little dull, but things have changed now.

"Now, I have to go through four security checkpoints manned by armed police to reach a particular locality inside the city," Khan said.

She also visited the refugee camps of the Swat displaced, and it was there she felt that the Taliban still has the support of people, she writes in an article for the Times. "There’s certainly support for the Taliban in the camps. They represent, for many, an opposing force to an Army that ‘drones’ its own people. America’s war on terror, is unanimously viewed here as a war on Islam."