Imran Khan's many gaffes: From saying Taliban broke shackles of slavery to 'aloo and tamatar' remarks

Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday stirred a fresh controversy when he said  he did not join politics to check the prices of ‘aloo and tamatar’ (potatoes and tomatoes) but ‘for the sake of the country’s youth’. Imran made the remarks while attacked the Opposition parties for tabling a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament. Imran is accused of mismanaging the Pakistan economy amidst spiralling inflation. The leader of the Opposition, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, retorted that Imran had not become prime minister to fix the prices of staple foods, but to ‘ruin the country and the people’, adding that his work had been completed so it was time for him to ‘go home’. This back and forth comes in the wake of Pakistan’s general inflation, measured in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), being at a 24-month high of 13 per cent. Prices of almost all items are increasing. According to the Dawn, this is the highest CPI inflation since January, 2020, when it was 14.6 percent. This is far from the first time that Imran put his foot in his mouth. Let’s take a look at some part gaffes: Welcoming Taliban While the world condemned the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Imran said the war-ravaged country had “broken the shackles of slavery’. He not only endorsed the Taliban but also said his government will work closely with them. Sex crimes and mobiles Imran last year also linked sexual assault with the misuse of mobile phones. While speaking about the ‘correct usage’ of modern technology, Khan on 25 August said sexual crimes are on the rise in Pakistan due to the “misuse” of mobile phones. Victim shaming In June last year, Imran in an interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan on HBO said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense.” Following widespread flak, he backtracked on his remark saying he would “never say such a stupid thing”. Indeed.

Anchorperson: You were accused of rape victim blaming, how do you respond to that?

PM Imran Khan: It is #SuchNonsense

PM talked about different societies having different norms #PMIKonHBOMax pic.twitter.com/tOSgs1AuOc

— PTI USA Official (@PTIOfficialUSA) June 21, 2021

Fake video Imran also hit the headlines when he shared a six-year-old video shot in Bangladesh from his verified Twitter handle in 2020 with the line, “Indian police’s pogrom against Muslims in UP.” ‘Slip of tongue’ Imran described former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a ‘shaheed’ (martyr) while speaking in the Parliament. Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later clarified that it was a “slip of the tongue”. Colonial import Imran has recently blamed the English medium education system, inherited from the colonial rulers, for distancing him from his religion and culture. He said the British built such schools to “create an elite class in (undivided) India which is Indian in colour but thinks like us (the British), has our attitudes and through whom we can govern such a big continent”. In a similar vein, earlier in 2021, in an interview with Geo News, Imran said sexual violence was a product of ‘obscenity,’ which he described as a Western import. Indian population Again in August last year Khan said, “New Zealand with a population of 40-50 lakh defeated India with a population of 1 billion and 300 crore in the World Test Championship final.” India has a population of around 136 crore or 1.3 billion.

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Controversial analogy In November 2018, in response to criticism against his constant U-turns on several issues, Imran compared himself to Hitler and Napoleon. He said, “One who doesn’t take decisions according to the demand of the situation is not a true leader. Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte would not have suffered losses in wars in Russia if they had taken U-turns,” he remarked. “Leaders should always be ready to take U-turns according to the requirement of their duties and best interests of the nation,” he added. Well, quite. Geography goof up In 2018, Imran, during a speech at the Envoys Conference on Economic Diplomacy in Islamabad, referred to Africa as an “emerging country.” In 2019, again, while speaking at an event in Tehran, during his two-day official visit to Iran, Khan said Germany and Japan share borders.

Praising China In 2018 again, Imran was heavily trolled for claiming that China is about to make trains that will run faster than light.

Here’s Imran Khan talking about lightspeed trains. pic.twitter.com/2rYVD1toJ6 — Haider Abbasi (@HaiderKAbbasi) November 23, 2018

Row over Christianity The Pakistan prime minister again stirred up a row in the same year when he said that there was no mention of ‘Jesus’ in recorded human history. Incorrect attribution Dawn called out Khan when he claimed that Nobel Prize-winning Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal likened Pakistan’s development to California’s. It said, “the problem is that Myrdal never wrote a book by that title, or made any such claim. The closest he comes is a three-volume work called Asian Drama: an Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, written during the Ayub years, with a sobering chapter on Pakistan.” With input from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.