BY MICHAEL KUGELMAN
On March 25, 1992, Islamic Republic of Pakistan experienced ane of the greatest moments inwards its history.
Playing before a crowd of nearly 90,000 people on a pitch inwards Australia, Pakistan’s national cricket squad defeated England to win the sport’s globe cup. For the outset fourth dimension inwards its 45-year existence, cricket-mad Islamic Republic of Pakistan was the champion of the world. Back home, euphoric Pakistanis poured out of their homes to celebrate. It was, in the words of cricket author Mohammad Ramis, “the jubilation of their lives.”
Pakistan’s squad was led past times 40-year-old squad captain Imran Khan, a star batter together with bowler together with therefore inwards the twilight of an illustrious career.
Fast-forward to today. Khan, instantly a star politician, is poised to acquire Pakistan’s side past times side prime number government minister afterward his Islamic Republic of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party triumphed inwards elections terminal week.
Khan has instantly pulled off an exceedingly rare feat: He has achieved the highest possible degree of success every bit both an athlete together with a politician. Many top (and mediocre) sportspersons receive got gone into politics, but precious few receive got gone on to Pb governments. As the New York Times has noted, the best analogue to Khan is George Weah: a Liberian soccer star inwards the 1990s who was elected president inwards 2017. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 to a greater extent than surprising representative is Ted Heath, who won the Sydney-Hobart yacht race—thought to live ane of the most challenging races of its kind—in 1969, only a yr before becoming the British prime number minister.
But Khan attributes his successful transition to politics to his might to construct a construct clean interruption alongside his athletic career together with to focus solely on his political objectives, fifty-fifty piece leveraging his win-at-all-costs mentality from his playing days to motivate himself inwards the political arena. To live sure, Khan’s household hollo condition from his cricket days also gave him an initial boost when he was outset launching his political career.
And yet, there’s something else that’s unique inwards all this—and also strikingly paradoxical. As an athlete, Khan was universally loved inwards Pakistan. But every bit a politician, his combination of deeply held together with fiercely defended beliefs, his mercurial nature, his inconsistent together with inwards many cases controversial policy positions, together with his ain dramatic personal transformation construct him a deeply polarizing figure.
Consider, for example, that Khan is extraordinarily dedicated together with determined, together with stubbornly committed to taking upward singular causes—from combating corruption to opposing U.S. drone strikes. Some years ago, I sat inwards on a coming together alongside Khan. He spent several minutes denouncing drones, until ane of my colleagues was asked if she had anything to add together to the conversation. My nervous colleague, who had told me before that she’d long had a rhythm out on Khan, could only blurt out that she couldn’t believe she was inwards the same room alongside him. Khan’s towering frame stiffened. He briefly looked at her alongside around mild irritation, frowned, together with and therefore returned to railing against drones.
But fifty-fifty piece Khan fixates laser-like on the issues he values most, he is also remarkably mercurial, together with fifty-fifty erratic. He oft gives rambling speeches that receive got unnerved around of his supporters, together with he engages inwards head-snapping policy flip-flops. He has loudly condemned terrorist attacks on Pakistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, but he also offers full-throated support for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which are used every bit pretexts for attacks on religious minorities. He denounces terrorists inwards the strongest terms, but he also opposestargeting them alongside force—and he has labeled the Taliban insurgency inwards Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan a holy state of war justified past times Islamic law. Khan is amount of praise for Pakistan’s safety institution fifty-fifty piece existence ane of the few senior politicians inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan to endorse the demands of an ethnic Pashtun-led movement that directs its ire at the repressive policies of the army.
During his cricket days, Khan was comfortably ensconced inwards the West. He spent ample fourth dimension inwards England, becoming a large share of its celebrity civilisation together with developing a reputation every bit a frequent partier whose outset wedlock was to a celebrity English linguistic communication heiress to a greater extent than than 2 decades younger than him. He has since morphed into a pious together with conservative political leader who regularly rails against the West, specially the United States. Khan instantly prefers to maintain his personal life out of the headlines, but his marital province of affairs continues to captivate the Pakistani media. This includes a brief wedlock to journalist Reham Khan inwards 2014, which lasted less than a year, together with his 3rd marriage, to Bushra Maneka, described every bit his spiritual guide, inwards early on 2018.
Today, Khan has burnished his ain icon every bit an incorruptible reformer intent on expunging the rot from a corrupt organization dominated past times political dynasties such every bit the Sharif together with Bhutto families, which command Pakistan’s 2 longest-lasting political parties. And yet the PTI includes several top leaders who in ane lawsuit belonged to those really parties, together with it has taken tactics out of their playbooks. This includes recent successful PTI efforts to attract “electables”—influential together with moneyed electoral candidates alongside the might to deliver large numbers of votes—to the party’s cause.
In around ways, this shouldn’t live a surprise. Khan had a vogue to undercut his incorruptible icon on the cricket pitch every bit well. In his 1994 autobiography, Khan admitted to tampering alongside the cricket ball, picking at the seam together with fifty-fifty bringing a bottle cap onto the plain to surreptitiously scratch it—a serious criminal offense inwards cricket, since it adds an unexpected twistiness to a bowler’s spin. Khan’s defence forcefulness was that everyone was doing it, together with that he only did it occasionally. Others, however, weren’t so sure.
Even if Khan isn’t 100 per centum clean, his anti-corruption message has resonated amid many, specially young, urban, conservative, middle-class voters inwards Punjab—Pakistan’s most populous province together with top electoral prize. His younger fans, around of whom weren’t live for his cricket heroics inwards 1992, revere the charismatic Khan together with defend him vigorously—and sometimes aggressively—on social media.
But Khan has enough of critics, too, especially Pakistani liberals together with members of the country’s to a greater extent than progressive political parties, every bit good every bit the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), which ran the previous authorities together with constantly sparred alongside the PTI. Khan’s detractors don’t only dislike him, they despise him alongside a vengeance. For some, he is “Taliban Khan,” a human being alongside a soft topographic point for militancy. For others, he is “Im the Dim”—a moniker reportedly outset coined during his cricket days—a reference to a hopeless naif. He’s also been described every bit a demagogue, a charlatan, together with a misogynist.
These days, many critics also denounce him every bit a military stooge: someone who achieved political success only because the regular army helped elevate him together with who is instantly poised to acquire premier only because the armed forces engineered efforts behind the scenes to bolster the PTI’s electoral prospects.
Predictably, Khan’s election victory way dissimilar things to dissimilar people. For his staunchest supporters, his triumph offers resounding proof that in that place is a 3rd way inwards Pakistani politics together with that leaders alongside no ties to household unit of measurement dynasties or established parties tin plough over the sack rising to the top. For his harshest critics, his win represents a still coup for an regular army intent on bringing its preferred candidate to power.
Khan’s many contradictions construct him a difficult human being to figure out—and yet we’ll acquire a lot to a greater extent than close him, together with his might to Pb the country, in ane lawsuit he takes run inwards the coming weeks.
He’s already confronting a brewing economical crisis, an aggrieved political opposition still smarting from what it describes every bit blatant pre-poll together with election-day rigging. together with clear together with introduce extremist threats that resulted inwards a recent spate of attacks on electoral candidates—including the single deadliest terror strike inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan since 2014. He also must human face upward the challenge of Pakistan’s growing debt to China, non to bring upward an Indian competition nervous close his nationalistic rhetoric. Above all, Khan volition receive got to reckon alongside an regular army that won’t hesitate to cutting him downwards to size if it concludes having him inwards might no longer serves its interests.
Neither Khan nor the PTI has always led a national authorities before, together with he volition live operating inwards ane of the most polarized political environments inwards Islamic Republic of Pakistan inwards recent memory.
In short, Khan’s honeymoon stream won’t terminal long, if he fifty-fifty gets ane at all, together with he’ll live seat to the bear witness correct away.
But together with therefore again, Imran Khan has defied the odds before. Twenty-six years ago, he led a squad hampered past times injury together with pitiful functioning to the pinnacle of the cricket world. In an inspiring vocalisation communication before the match, according to around accounts, he implored his squad to “fight similar cornered tigers.” (Others, curiously, say the vocalisation communication never happened.)
To live sure, Khan faces bigger challenges instantly than he always did on the cricket pitch. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 cornered tiger wouldn’t stand upward a chance. Additionally, no elected Pakistani prime number government minister has always finished a amount five-year term. Still, Khan is arguably similar no previous Pakistani leader. He is charismatic, relatively clean, together with unencumbered past times whatsoever entanglements inwards dynastic families. He is, if aught else, a breath of fresh air for a public suffocated past times many years of politics every bit usual.
Buat lebih berguna, kongsi:
