‘Sajdah’ is only for Allah, says Imran after shrine’s visit sparks online debate

LAHORE: PTI chairman Imran Khan said that he had only kissed the floor of a shrine out of the respect of the Sufi saint for his services for the cause of Islam.

The clarification came hours after Imran Khan’s visit to Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar shrine in Pakpattan sparked a debate on social media forums.

Users have been sharing footage of Khan's visit, in which  former cricket hero is seen paying his respects at the Shrine.

“Sajda is only for Allah, I only kissed the floor of the mazar out of my respect for the great individual that he was, for his services to Islam. This makes you more humble and removes your ego,” Imran Khan said in an interview with a news channel.

Explaining further, he said: “Sufism speaks about removing the "main" the ego in an individual, people see these things superficially and declare fatwas without knowing the religion, without even knowing the facts whether it was a kiss or sajda.”

To a question, he questioned why do all these things like Sita White, and other kind of character assassination happen each time when the elections are around the corner.

“I know Sharif brothers sponsored the book, they pretend being decent people, they did character assassination of Benazir Bhutto whom I had known since university days, she was my class fellow,” he said.

The PTI chief said that he had never claimed to be an angel.

“I never claimed I was an angel all my life but the fact is that I have changed myself from the kind of person that I was 22 years ago,” he said.

Responding to another question, he said that he had always tried to see the the positivity in people first and ignore the negativity and this was the reason he got disappointed most often and despite that people stoop too low at time that I still get surprised.

“You would never hear me speak anything against any woman who worked with me or even my ex-wife, this is about your character to keep privacy of people who've been with you once,” he added.