KARACHI: Renowned musical band Junoon’s founding member and guitar player Salman Ahmad introduced his documentary Spiritual Democracy on Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to the media at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Tuesday evening.

Prior to speaking to journalists, the first episode of the documentary was screened. It had old footage of the prime minister’s cricketing days and interviews of his colleagues and family members, intercut with Mr Ahmad’s interview of the prime minister. He was accompanied at the club by former Test cricketer Javed Miandad who was the first speaker of the evening.

Mr Miandad lauded Mr Ahmad’s effort and said he’s known him for a long time. He’s also a friend of the musician’s father. He urged Mr Ahmad to keep doing such stuff so that it could serve the coming generations of Pakistanis.

Guitar player Salman Ahmad screens his documentary on prime minister at KPC

Replying to a question about the timing of the release of the film, Mr Ahmad said it had nothing to do with the current state of affairs of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government. He had decided on the project a year earlier and talked to the prime minister about it.

When a journalist pushed the issue asking whether the musician was satisfied with the way the federal government has performed so far, in terms of not keeping its promises, Mr Ahmad likened the situation to a cricket Test match. He argued that unlike a T20 or ODI match, the real test of a cricketer’s talent and ability lies in how he fares in a Test match which lasts for five days. “It’s been only three days. Give them two more days.”

When a similar question was put to Mr Miandad, he said he and the prime minister had extensively travelled all around the world, which has given them the advantage of looking at things with a wider perspective.

Mr Ahmad told the media that the series will comprise four episodes, the second of which is about Indo-Pak relations, two nuclear neighbours.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021