Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s cousin set to contest elections from Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s paternal cousin Noor Jehan will contest general elections scheduled to be held on July 25 from Peshawar.

Ms Jehan, who collected her nomination papers from the Election Commission, will be running for a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa seat from PK-77 constituency as an independent candidate.

”I want to work for women’s empowerment. I’d like to focus on the problems in my constituency,” Ms Jehan said in an interview with a local daily.

Ms Jehan and her family reside in Shah Wali Qataal area, adjacent to Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

It is reported that the Awami National Party (ANP) had also considered Jehan for a reserved seat for women, but unfortunately she couldn’t make it to the provincial legislature.

Jehan’s brother Mansoor is leading her election campaign. He narrates that their family had been a part of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan.

Mansoor further explains that it’s not just her sister came out of blue to contest the polls. “We have a political legacy attached to the family. My sister has previously served as a councilor,” he said.

Noor Jehan, in one of her interviews in the past, said she stayed with Shah Rukh Khan for around a month during her first trip to India in 1997. Jehan’s father Ghulam Muhammad, who is popularly known as Gama, was the elder brother of Shah Rukh’s father Taj Muhammad.

Earlier, she was quoted as saying by the daily that she had lost contact with Shah Rukh Khan as the superstar keeps changing his phone number. But she managed to get SRK’s personal phone number from Anil Kapoor’s father Surinder Kapoor and once again got in touch with the King of Bollywood.