What future awaits Imran Khan?
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s greatest cricketing hero, has no time for doubters. This time next year, he says, he will be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The corruption that plagues the country will be no more. Extremism will be on the wane, and the economy, now comatose, will be booming. Mid-soliloquy Khan notices a raised eyebrow – few in Pakistan think he has any realistic chance of winning the upcoming election, let alone performing such post-election miracles.
A recent Pew Global Attitudes Project poll gave him a 70% approval rating, compared with 36% for the then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and 14% for President Asif Ali Zardari – political analysts and pollsters say he would be lucky to get 20 to 40 seats in the next election. That’s largely because Pakistan’s entrenched patronage networks and lingering feudal system have always firmly steered the rural vote in favor of the established parties-leaving little chance for Khan’s party in much of the country. “Popularity doesn’t necessarily translate into electoral success,” says Mohammad Waseem, a political-science professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Khan’s anti-corruption message and stance against the ongoing American missile strikes from drones against terrorist suspects in Pakistan, which he calls a violation of national sovereignty, may have electrified large swaths of the young and urban middle class, but historically speaking, the latter group seldom votes in significant numbers-only 350/0 of the country lives in cities. Parliamentary seats are won from Pakistan’s rural constituencies, explains Waseem, where “Khan is up against two well-structured mainstream parties... juggernauts with extensive vote-capturing capabilities. I can see [Khan winning] 35 seats, maximum.
Mr Right?
At times Khan’s Sheer Force of personality and attractiveness seem to make small matters like policy and core beliefs marginally important. He is big on populist gestures – and being adored.
His first move as Prime Minister, he says, will be to close down the lavish prime-ministerial palace in favor of conducting the business of state from his hilltop bungalow.
Beneath the Surface
who died of cancer in 1985. The world-class facility provides free care to 750/0 of its patients and is widely considered to be one of the best-run institutions in the country. Khan’s vocal opposition to American drone attacks in the tribal areas has also won him widespread accolades from a nationalist populace growing ever more anti-American. “Whether he is a good politician, whether he is going to win, who knows,” says a former U.S. official who has known Khan for several years and requested anonymity, lest Americans be accused of supporting one candidate over the others. “The point is that anyone who wants to talk about corruption, about a future in which you get along with your neighbors, anyone who stands up to the Americans and says ‘We don’t see it this way,’ anyone who is open and honest about that deserves a place in the political firmament.
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s greatest cricketing hero, has no time for doubters. This time next year, he says, he will be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The corruption that plagues the country will be no more. Extremism will be on the wane, and the economy, now comatose, will be booming. Mid-soliloquy Khan notices a raised eyebrow – few in Pakistan think he has any realistic chance of winning the upcoming election, let alone performing such post-election miracles.
image courtesy: tribune.com.pk
Khan’s anti-corruption message and stance against the ongoing American missile strikes from drones against terrorist suspects in Pakistan, which he calls a violation of national sovereignty, may have electrified large swaths of the young and urban middle class, but historically speaking, the latter group seldom votes in significant numbers-only 350/0 of the country lives in cities. Parliamentary seats are won from Pakistan’s rural constituencies, explains Waseem, where “Khan is up against two well-structured mainstream parties... juggernauts with extensive vote-capturing capabilities. I can see [Khan winning] 35 seats, maximum.
image courtesy: Bloomberg.com
And while that’s far short of what Khan would need to form a government, 35 seats would be an unprecedented showing for any new party in a fair election. Khan would then be well positioned to win a majority in subsequent elections. Either way, as the first relatively new name in a political cast that has changed little over the past two decades, Khan stands to shake up a system in desperate need of transformation. What’s less clear, however, is what the man devoted to remaking Pakistani politics actually stands for.Mr Right?
At times Khan’s Sheer Force of personality and attractiveness seem to make small matters like policy and core beliefs marginally important. He is big on populist gestures – and being adored.
His first move as Prime Minister, he says, will be to close down the lavish prime-ministerial palace in favor of conducting the business of state from his hilltop bungalow.
Beneath the Surface
image courtesy: dawn.com
If Pakistanis made their electoral decisions based purely on how anti-establishment their candidates are, Khan would be a shoo-in. He has made a career out of being a voice in the wilderness, resigning from Parliament in protest against the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf and boycotting the 2008 elections that brought the PPP into power, furious over a U.S.-backed amnesty agreement that cleared Sharif, Zardari and Bhutto from past corruption charges. Since then he has been a regular presence on television talk shows, railing against corruption, drones, tax evasion and what he calls the U.S.’s mismanaged war on terrorism in Pakistan. “By what law are drone attacks justified? Suspects are being eliminated without trial. Not just them, but their women, children and any neighbor who happens to be there. So when terrorists take revenge with a suicide attack, they justify it as ‘collateral damage,’ just like the Americans,” says Khan.
image courtesy: gandhara.rferl.org
One of Khan’s biggest successes in his 16-year campaign for the prime minister-ship has been his ability to convince the middle class that he is one of them. Never mind that he shares the same privileged background as his rivals-attending Lahore’s elite Aitchison College before moving to the U.K. and later enrolling at Oxford at 19-he identifies with the suffering masses, speaking passionately about his return to Islam. He has spent some of his wealth directly on the people whose pain he insists he feels. In ~ he opened the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Center in memory of his mother,
image courtesy: propakistani.pk
who died of cancer in 1985. The world-class facility provides free care to 750/0 of its patients and is widely considered to be one of the best-run institutions in the country. Khan’s vocal opposition to American drone attacks in the tribal areas has also won him widespread accolades from a nationalist populace growing ever more anti-American. “Whether he is a good politician, whether he is going to win, who knows,” says a former U.S. official who has known Khan for several years and requested anonymity, lest Americans be accused of supporting one candidate over the others. “The point is that anyone who wants to talk about corruption, about a future in which you get along with your neighbors, anyone who stands up to the Americans and says ‘We don’t see it this way,’ anyone who is open and honest about that deserves a place in the political firmament.
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