Articles of the year 2020

A rumour often circulated among the gossip mills of Punjab is of Princess Diana’s private visit to Lahore, as a guest of Jemima and Imran. She was staying at Imran’s house in Mayo Gardens.

Benazir, Prime Minister at the time, offered Princess Diana to stay at Governor’s House in Lahore. Diana demurred, saying as it was a private visit and she was a guest of Jemima’s it would be impolite.
This so incensed Benazir that she ordered the power of the whole area of Mayo Gardens to be turned off.

As Imran’s house did not have a generator, the whole family was plunged into darkness and made to suffer the cruel heat of Punjabi summer. A true test of the stiff upper lip for which the stoic English are renowned.

It does, however, cast a shabby light on the petulant Benazir. It is no wonder that she was never offered tea at Buckingham Palace.
The British Establishment has a memory that can be as cruel as any Bhutto.