Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan claimed victory in the general elections held on July 25 which was also widely covered by international media.
However, a news report by the renowned BBC confused him with another famous cricketer Wasim Akram. A BBC news report on the elections inadvertently carried a clip Wasim Akram who also played for Pakistan during the World Cup victory in 1992.
In a news segment of the BBC Newsnight, they confused Imran with the left-arm bowler Wasim Akram and showed clips of Akram bowling to refer back to Imran’s career in cricket and journey to a potential prime minister.
The gaffe quickly went viral with people trolling the channel online who later apologised for their mistake. The inadvertent mix-up was slammed by many for the channel’s “ignorance” while many asked if to them “all brown people look the same”.
By the time the channel realised their mistake and deleted the tweet, screenshots of the new segment flooded social media.
Among those watching it live, was Justice Secretary David Gauke, who shared a photo of his TV screen on Twitter and wrote, “#Newsnight seem to have got Wasim Akram and Imran Khan muddled up.”
Just in case you thought you dreamt it, they did just confuse Wasim Akram and Imran Khan. Worth a chuckle as you hand over your license fee… pic.twitter.com/cZx2gccptd
— Sanna Waseem (@SannaWaseem) July 25, 2018
#Newsnight seem to have got Wasim Akram and Imran Khan muddled up. pic.twitter.com/PqIlo4wqq0
— David Gauke (@DavidGauke) July 25, 2018
You know what I love about the British media? They NEVER let you down. Here I was thinking “why are they showing footage of Wasim Akram?!” and then I realised, “Oh yeah… they think it’s Imran Khan, because they all look the same…”
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!@EvanHD https://t.co/YfTV42hnyS
— Samar @TheMJAP (@TheMJAP) July 25, 2018
@BBCNewsnight
Opening credits is cricketer Imran Khan about to become PM
But play a clip of Wasim Akram from 1999 😂🙈 pic.twitter.com/eJoN80ahzt— Asif (@aau004) July 25, 2018
Beautiful bowling from #newsnight using a lively left arm yorker from Wasim Akram in their opener about Imran Khan..
— Andy Richardson (@AndyR_Sport) July 25, 2018
Funny thing about that Newsnight Wasim Akram clip – is if he ever did enter politics, there’d be no end of accusations about manipulating electoral ‘swing’ no doubt… [sorry I couldn’t resist]
— Jack Mendel (@Mendelpol) July 25, 2018
All for newsnight opening up with a piece on Imran Khan whilst showing a video of Wasim Akram 😂😂😂😂 bravo @BBCNewsnight
— Paul LUFC (@pistol1603) July 25, 2018
The BBC confusing Wasim Akram with Imran Khan (who won the Pakistani Election) is absolute gold! 😂
— John Pile (@John_Pile) July 25, 2018
Really #Newsnight, that’s Wasim Akram not Imran Khan….but heyy all brown people look the same anyway
— Imran #FBPE (@imrrrrran) July 25, 2018
Wait so Newsnight didn’t know the difference between the Legend Imran Khan & the awesome Wasim Akram? 😒
When even the casuals, you know the bbc should be sacking those who put that together.
— Yousaf (@Yousaf_S_1987) July 25, 2018
Perhaps your opening credits On tonight’s programme should correctly show Imran Khan and not Wasim Akram. Or is any brown cricketer suffice of Pakistani heritage?
— DrFatimaJabbar (@drfatimajabbar) July 25, 2018
@BBCNewsnight You just showed a clip of Wasim Akram, in your opening credits instead of Imran Khan! Do ‘they all look the same’ to you? How bloody shambolic and embarrassing #Newsnight
— pjw (@pwj70) July 25, 2018
I was wondering why Wasim Akram is trending.
Did @BBCNewsnight really run a story on Imran Khan, only to show footage of Wasim Akram bowling?
Unbelievable. These are cricketing legends. The BBC sub editor must be a millennial fresh out of uni.
— Raza Saab (@RazaSaab) July 25, 2018
Later, they also issued an apology on Twitter for their mistake. Presenter Evan Davis apologised at the end of the programme.
“We made a mistake in our opening tonight. The footage we showed was of the cricketer Wasim Akram not Imran Khan.
“Don’t know how that happened, sincere apologies for that,” he told viewers.
Apologies on our intro just then!! A bit of an error – that was Wasim Akram bowling and not Imran Khan #newsnight
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) July 25, 2018
