Pakistan Election: Bloodied, but Not Beaten

It was a television image that many feared seeing in an election campaign beset by terrorist attacks. A prominent party leader, aspiring to be prime minister,was shown bloodied, unconscious and being carried from a rally. Late on May 7th Imran Khan, the charismatic leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), was rushed to hospital with injuries inflicted during a campaign event in Lahore. Yet Mr Khan was the victim of a clumsy accident, not terrorism. He fractured his spine and cut his head after tumbling five metres (roughly 15 feet) from a platform attached to a forklift truck being used to raise him to a stage, along with an absurd number of flunkies. Though kept in hospital on May 8th, and possibly until voting day on May 11th, Mr Khan was able to give interviews and suggest that his injuries were not too grievous.