First episode of film on PM Imran premiered

World premiere of the episode one of a new film on Prime Minister Imran Khan titled Spiritual Democracy was held at the Sindh Governor House here on Tuesday, which also happened to be the PM’s 69th birthday.

Salman Ahmad of ‘Junoon’ music band, the film-maker, said the film was the result of his getting Covid and seeing death up-close while he was in New York in early 2020. He had prayed that if he survived, he would do something positive.

“And I was named Covid-19 ambassador for South Asia soon after. Working in that capacity, I saw how the Pakistan government fought the pandemic by helping the poor through its various programmes,” he said.

“It is all because of our having a leader with vision. So I asked the prime minister to grant me an interview after seeing our country’s great fightback. It turned out to be an in-depth interview that had to be broken into four parts or episodes,” he said.

The first part of the film takes you down memory lane. There are old clips of the prime minister during his hunting trips, his playing cricket, his lifting the World Cup in 1992 and of his delivering speeches during the 2014 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) sit-in.

The PM explained the meaning of the term ‘Spiritual Democracy’ in his interview. “Being humane is spiritual. And where a democracy is in the interest of people, it is a spiritual democracy,” he said.

He also spoke about how while building the cancer hospital, he would think about having a welfare state that cared about the nation.

His earlier denials to enter politics also came up, along with his saying that he was not interested in getting married. Fast forwarding to more than 30 years when he is the prime minister and married thrice, he smiled and said that humans evolved. In between his interview there are also comments from others, journalists, criticising his U-turns like these and more.

The screening was followed by Governor Imran Ismail remembering how he first met with Imran Khan back in 1993.

Originally published in Dawn, October 6th, 2021