Ironically, Khan had an image of a playboy in his hey days and was known to hobnob with Indian heroines in the 70, 80s

By Mayur Lookhar

He never shies away from slamming India over the issue of Kashmir or equating the current Narendra Modi-led Indian government with the Nazis. But Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has hit a new low when he blamed Hollywood, Bollywood films for the rising sex crimes, paedophilia in his country.

“It is very important for us to understand that Pakistan is facing a very big challenge and that is because of mobile phones. Mobile phones have enabled the availability of such content to children that was never available in entire human history. Now there is a fallout. This is the main reason of drugs getting inside schools. I did not realise it until I came to power. A sex crime is skyrocketing, pedophilia, child pornography is going on in Pakistan,” Khan said in a YouTube video while addressing his people.

“We are trying to clampdown. But one more reason is the content, content comes from Hollywood, then to Bollywood and then to Pakistan. People here do not realise that we are consuming the most harmful thing of western civilization,” added Khan.

Khan’s blaming of the respective American [Hollywood] and [Bollywood] Hindi film industry comes as another embarrassing comment made by the Pakistani Prime Minister.

The former cricketer though should be reminded that in his hey days, he was notorious for his playboy image. He was linked with many young British women. During his cricketing trips to India in the 70s, 80s, Khan often hobnobbed with socialites like Parmeshwar Godrej, and Indian film stars. Khan was once romantically linked to yesteryear actress Zeenat Aman. It has often been rumoured in entertainment circles that Khan had his flings with few Indian actresses, one of them a late superstar.

Khan is married thrice. He was 43 when he married British socialite Jemima Goldsmith, who was just 21 then. They divorced in 2004. Khan then married journalist, author Reham Khan in 2014 but the marriage lasted just a year. Reham was 41 then while Khan was 62. In 2018, Khan married Bushra Bibi [45] at the age of 66.

Child sexual abuse is widespread in Pakistani Islamic schools. In a study of child sexual abuse in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, out of a sample of 300 children 17% claimed to have been abused and in 1997 one child a day was reported as raped, gang raped or kidnapped for sexual gratification. In September 2014, the British Channel 4 broadcast a documentary called Pakistan’s Hidden Shame, directed by Mohammed Naqvi and produced by Jamie Doran,which highlighted the problem of sexual abuse of street children in particular, an estimated 90 percent of whom have been sexually abused.