BRITISH heiress Sita White's decision to file a paternity suit in a Los Angeles court to prove that Imran Khan fathered her four-year-old daughter has severely damaged the cricket legend's reputation in Pakistan. This, in turn, may affect his chances for the February polls.
Luckily for Imran, the setting up of the new council which allows the military a legitimate role in politics seems to have overshadowed the Sita White issue. The PML (Nawaz) had filed a reference with the Election Commission under the new electoral laws, seeking Imran's disqualification on ethical grounds for having fathered an illegitimate child. The appeal was rejected by the returning offi-cer on January 8.
While the PML (N) is gunning for Imran, the PPP does not seem to be very interested. Apart from the fact that Imran is contesting directly against Nawaz Sharif in his home constituency, the PML fears that Imran may eat into its right-wing vote-bank. In its crusade against Imran, the PML has even ordered copies of old newspapers from England in which the exploits and pictures of Imran cavorting with 'half-naked' models were published and is now planning to print them in pamphlets.
White, 31, said she decided to take legal action only after Imran officially denied that he was the father of her daughter and challenged her to take the issue to court. Denying that she timed the suit to sabotage Imran's campaign, White said: "It would never have been an issue if Imran had not publicly denied his paternity and shamed me." While filing the suit on January 6, White demanded that Imran provide his blood sample within 30 days for the paternity tests. She is also seeking an unspecified sum as child support from Imran.
White's charges come on the eve of the elections, when Imran is busy campaigning on an anti-corruption platform and for respecting women's rights and Islamic law, including public executions of those found to be corrupt. Reacting to White's claim, he says the corrupt mafia of Pakistani politics was using White and "the nasty move is aimed at sabotaging my election campaign. I will take necessary legal action in this regard if needed". White and Imran had a relationship between 1987 and 1988, but kept seeing each other even after it ended. On October 21, 1991, White told Imran she wanted a child by him. According to her, Imran was enthusiastic initially, hoping it would be a boy. But on learning the child was a girl, "Imran advised me that I should consider an abortion because a girl would not be able to play cricket. I, however, refused and gave birth to Tyrian Jade on June 15, 1992," she said. Political analysts here feel that if Imran admits to being Tyrian's father, he faces serious controversy. If he denies it, as he has time and again, many voters would still have doubts about his integrity.