Jemima threatens to run son’s libel claim against Reham

LONDON: Imran Khan’s former wife Jemima Goldsmith has said that she will be funding the defamation case of her eldest son Sulaiman Isa Khan against Reham Khan if Reham’s book is published in the United Kingdom’s jurisdiction.

Jemima Goldsmith said that she will be “suing for defamation & breach of privacy on behalf of my (then) 16-year-old son & in relation to the moronic, re-hashed Zionist conspiracy theories”.

Imran Khan’s first wife said about Imran Khan’s second wife Reham Khan that it was in her knowledge that Reham Khan’s manuscript carried libellous material. She said in a tweet: “On Reham Khan's book, I've been assured that it's too libellous to be published in the UK but if it is published here, I will be suing for defamation & breach of privacy on behalf of my (then) 16-yr-old son & in relation to the moronic, re-hashed Zionist conspiracy theories.”

Jemima Goldsmith’s tweet clearly suggested that Reham’s book manuscript is not libellous about her but parts of it related to her son are deemed “defamatory”.

Sulaiman Khan is now 19-year-old, independent and not a minor and has the right to take legal actions on his own but his mother announced that she will be funding his case about the parts of the manuscript which relate to him when he was 16-year-old – that’s related to 2015 when Reham Khan was married to Imran Khan and lived in Banigala. Jemima didn’t mention her younger son Qasim Khan which means that there is nothing allegedly libellous about him in the manuscript.

A PTI source confirmed that Reham’s manuscript is not defamatory about Jemima Goldsmith and Reham was perhaps aware that Jemima Goldsmith could pose challenge to her through courts.

Legal experts told this correspondent that of all the people who have threatened to take action against Reham Khan, only Imran Khan’s son could have a strong claim as he himself has not issued a statement and his claim of “breach of privacy” relating to the phase when he was only 16-year-old has merit. It’s not known what’s written about him but Reham will have to assess and reconsider what she wants to mention in the book related to Sulaiman if she has plans to publish the book in the UK.

Separately, Imran Khan’s friend Zufli Bukhari has instructed a West London law firm -- also on behalf of Ijaz Rehman, Wasim Akram and Anila Khawaja -- to send legal notice to Reham Khan but it seems that there are a lot of legal complexities involved in that claim and it looks improbable that this case would be assessed for a success and land in front of a judge in the courts of England after the defamation letter was made public. All the claimants have rejected and discredited the claims made by Reham Khan and defended themselves in media.

If Zulfi Bukhari succeeds in taking Reham to a court in England, it will cost the four claimants around £1.5 million and for Reham to defend the cost would be not less than £0.5 million.

Reham told Geo News in an interview that her upcoming book mentions a BlackBerry phone, claiming that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is scared of it. She says, “Last year, former PTI member Ayesha Gulalai, while alleging Imran Khan of sending inappropriate messages, had said that he urged females to use BlackBerry so that messages cannot be traced.

"My book mentions a BlackBerry and perhaps they [PTI] are scared of it. They are scared of the information in the phone." Reham denounced her opponents, saying that those speaking against her are confused and not clear about who is backing her.

"If there is a Raiwind mafia they should come and support me. They are abusing on social media. They have kept private investigators and there is a mafia behind them. You could have seen if there was a mafia behind me.”

"They are confused… sometimes they say there is an Indian businessman, then they say it’s Husain Haqqani. Then they say it’s the Raiwind mafia, Hanif Abbasi or Shahbaz Sharif. They should decide on their allegations on who is backing me."