Govt hardens stance on ‘ghost article’

Imran says ‘verbally dictated’ piece published in The Economist

The caretaker government on Monday toughened its stance on a piece published in The Economist by incarcerated PTI chief Imran Khan, describing it as “ghost article” as the latter said he had verbally dictated his guest essay.
A guest essay attributed to Imran in British publication on January 4 indicated that he had serious doubts about whether the upcoming elections would be held or not.
The piece reiterated his allegations about how a regime change brought about after US government pressure led to a vote of no-confidence against him last year and described the May 9 riots as a “false-flag operation” which was “pre-planned”.
“It is not an issue that someone cannot write an article or a book while languishing in jail. We have the objection that the article in question has not been written by the former PTI chairman,” the minister said while speaking in a current affairs programme of the Pakistan Television.
Solani said no such content was leaked from the jail to any media organisation and The Economist published the “ghost article” in the name of the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman.
Meanwhile, during a hearing on the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases in Adiala Jail on Monday, the PTI founder was questioned by journalists about whether he wrote the essay.
“I own the column published in an international journal. I had given verbal guidelines regarding the column. The article was written and published as a result of these guidelines. I had verbally dictated the article,” Imran told reporters.
The PTI chief did, however, say that it was “the age of artificial intelligence”, adding that next week, a speech of his would also arrive on social media.

With additional input from APP