7 ways Imran Khan’s fans tried to show Pakistanis his US visit was a success

From Indian Muslims to Rani Mukerji to a US senator, PTI supporters declared everyone was in awe of their leader Imran Khan.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during an event at the Asia Society in New York, US | Photo: Cate Dingley | Bloomberg

Everything has changed for Pakistan’s ‘Selected’ Prime Minister Imran Khan after the recent visit to the United States.

Since Imran Khan was sworn in to power in August 2018, he has been mocked as a ‘Selected’ prime minister and not an elected one. The word selected has irked Khan and his ministers so much that the deputy chairman even banned its usage in the national assembly.

But during his recent visit to the US, ‘Senator Tony Booker’ came out in support of Khan, saying, “If he is selected then it might be the best selection ever, and if he is elected then Pakistanis are the most wise nation in the world.”

Khan wins Booker

If India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking a lap with US President Donald Trump in Houston, Pakistan had Tony Booker, who just settled the year-long debate on “selected” once and for all.

#manofpeace #manofjustice #manofwisdom . ⁦@ImranKhanPTI⁩ . I say sir You are selected by the ALMIGHTY to lead Pakistan in the future .May the blessings of ALMIGHTY shine upon this nation . And may ALLAH guide us all .Pakistan hamesha Zindabad.🇵🇰♥️ pic.twitter.com/Db1iM0d1U6

— Shaan Shahid (@mshaanshahid) September 29, 2019

But, wait. There’s just a small glitch. Tony Booker, the US Senator, doesn’t really exist. He exists in the tweets of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) fans, not in the real world. There is one Cory Booker, US senator from New Jersey, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to weigh in on Pakistan prime minister’s status of being selected yet. Very cleverly, when people pointed out that Tony Booker wasn’t real, some of the PTI trolls started spinning the statement in Cory Booker’s name.

When Khan advises the entire world to “just Google”, it might be a good start if he could teach that to his supporters at home first. For now, Tony Booker, a fictitious senator, lives only in memes.

Photo courtesy: @ShkhRasheed | Twitter

But the marketing of Imran Khan’s US visit is endless. When he returned, hundreds of supporters and his top cabinet colleagues landed at the Islamabad International Airport with flags and flowers, in the backdrop of welcome chants. On Twitter, hashtag #WelomeHomePMIK trended the whole day. It was a welcome fit for a king who has returned after victory on the battlefield – or in his case, after winning another World Cup. But scratch the surface, and the welcome party is also another product of the fake news factory that is today’s PTI.

Photo courtesy: @SaifullahNyazee | Twitter

Of course, when former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s supporters used to welcome him at the airport, Imran Khan used to lampoon them as “darbaaris”.

Trump, Erdogan listen to world leader Khan

Imran Khan is a world leader and if you don’t know that, then you have been living under a rock. Indians can use Burnol, for President Trump and President Erdogan were “seeking advice” from our captain on the sidelines of UN General Assembly’s 74^th session last week. Look at him sitting so calmly, displaying such poise. They claim that this shows how the world values the leader of Pakistan. Unprecedented, his followers say.

There is a photograph that really exists. Trump and Erdogan are leaning over and talking to each other. Except that in the real picture, there was an empty seat between Trump and Erdogan. And PTI trolls have superimposed Imran Khan’s picture in the middle.

12 Indian Muslims

The world has gone gaga over Khan’s speech, his party claims: his act, speed, timing, delivery and whatnot. He is not only the best ambassador of Kashmirs, but he is also now the voice of every Muslim in India. After all, he worries about them day and night. Indian Muslims, from wherever, are glued to their TVs, watching Khan’s UNGA speech.

https://twitter.com/saira_muslim/status/1177659337935933440

They showcase a tweet with an image of an Indian Muslim family saying: “We have heard Imran Khan’s speech with our entire family in India. It is heartening to hear the words of Islam.” But no, this Muslim family from Kolkata was watching then-US President Barack Obama’s famous Cairo speech 10 years ago.

Nevertheless, if you have to show that the speech was a hit with 12 Indian Muslims, then this is the way to do it.

Time magazine cover

Imran Khan had just ended his UNGA speech, and it was just a matter of seconds before he made it to the cover of Time magazine. A cover showing Khan hit the social media stands, titled, “He Came, He Fought, He Conquered. How Khan won the world!” From what it looks like, the Time hasn’t done just a cover on Khan but an entire Issue, with no other stories but “How Prime Minister Imran Khan changed the Muslim world”. And by just superimposing Khan on the cover of a 2018 magazine.

Now, don’t ask about the contents of this issue because the deadline was short and the editors of Time didn’t have the time. So, you will have to live with only the cover for now. Thanks to Insafians, it is the second time in 2019 that Khan made it to Time magazine’s cover: in April, he was adjudged as one among the ‘100 most influential’ people in the world.

Rani Mukerji, a voice of reason

Ever since the advent of Twitter in Pakistan, ‘Rani Mukerji’ has been a voice of reason for PTI users. Whatever the political situation between Pakistan and India be, Rani Mukerji will give her opinion anyhow. If there is a day when you don’t understand the difference between real or fake, wait for Rani to endorse it to know it is fake for real.

https://twitter.com/RANIMUKERJl/status/1177627759704719360

“What a brilliant & tremendous speech by the Pakistani PM @ImranKhanPTI at the #UNGA. He spoke his heart out for the Oppressed Kashmiris & rightly exposed the RSS controlled regime. Wish we Indians had leadership like him,” the tweet by @RANIMUKERJI read. It doesn’t matter if her bio says ‘Parody account’ – what she posts is gospel truth for Khan supporters. The only tweet posted by the account has more than 4,000 likes and close to 2,000 retweets.

Putin-Khan dostana in US

Russian president Vladimir Putin had a rather good dinner interaction with PM Khan, as they sat together in New York, or so we are told. What all they would have talked about, we wondered. It meant good news diplomatically, right? But just as we were about to begin our celebration over this, we found that Putin wasn’t even in New York. He was in Russia with the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Paid ad in NYT

Get a paid advertisement published, put the ad sheet on top of the front page of The New York Times, and tweet from the official party handle: “The world has started paying attention to the #KashmirIssue and that itself is a diplomatic win for Pakistan. Our only aim is to make the Kashmiri voices heard despite Modi’s attempts to silence them through media blackout in Kashmir. Today in @nytimes! #ImranKhanVoiceOfKashmir”. Once the lie is called out, simply delete the tweet. A sponsored ad, not on the front page of The New York Times.

The author is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.