Contrary to the general impression, first cousins Majid Khan and Imran Khan, who is now the Prime Minister of Pakistan, buried the hatchet “six-seven years ago”. Both are former national cricket captains.
At 71, Majid is six years older to Imran.
That the two actually sat down and talked after years (possibly decades) of merely coming across each other during family functions, was revealed to The Telegraph by Majid’s only son Bazid, who too has played for Pakistan and is a TV commentator since 2013.
“I can’t give you the precise date, but the frostiness between my father and my uncle ended six-seven years ago after his sons, Suleiman and Qasim, came over to our ancestral residence in Lahore and spoke about cricket with my father and I. Suleiman, in particular, is massively drawn to the game.”
According to Bazid, once his first cousins left, both he and his mother Seema suggested to Majid that the past be left behind. The process of reconciliation quickly set in.
“My mother then called my aunt Rubina and she said that Imran was travelling at that very moment and enquired when we were returning to Islamabad. On being told that our plan was to be back there the next day, my aunt invited us to Imran’s residence. On reaching, we went to uncle’s place for dinner…
“I can’t exactly describe how my father and uncle greeted each other but when they began interacting, it seemed there had never been any issues at all…
“My father is the elder of the two, but both had more or less grown up together in (Lahore’s) Zaman Park and, then, shared the Pakistan dressing room for years,” Bazid stated.
Imran, it may be recalled, got Majid and the other seniors dropped almost as soon as he became the Pakistan captain near the mid 1980s. Majid, from what one recalls, never quite forgave Imran.
That, obviously, is a tightly closed chapter now.
Asked if his father ever mentioned the problem (s) with Imran towards the end of his career, Bazid replied: “Never… Father never mentioned a word and, after a point, we stopped asking him.”