Open Magazine – August 07, 2018

8 6 august 2018

openings

Captain pakistan

A

s it turned out, the just-concluded general

election in Pakistan was somewhat like the

country itself—rancorous, disorderly, violent,

suspicious, but still chugging along on some com-

plex force that few can understand. it is in this environment

that imran Khan, who once was thought to be the symbol of

progressive reform in a society increasingly getting ossified,

has finally come within striking distance of the crown. But

in that spread between his floating of the Pakistan tehreek-

e-insaf (Pti) in 1996 and now, 22 years later, Khan himself

has become the establishment Man: who twirls a rosary in

his hand because if you looked at his past, there wasn’t much

religion there, and therefore his new-found credentials need

to be relentlessly reinforced; who promised a liberal anti-

corruption revolution, and now stands accused of being the

political handmaiden of the country’s army, the force that

keeps Pakistan chained to its past.

Khan is ridiculed by some as being the donald trump of

Pakistan and that is probably unfair. trump jumped directly into

the president’s chair. Khan has been slogging it out in the dust

and grit of Pakistani politics for decades. the parallel between

the two are opportunism and success. trump, despite his new

York liberal billionaire lifestyle, became the leader of America’s

ultra-conservative, Bible-thumping rightists by telling them

what they wanted to hear. Khan, with his life steeped in Western

culture and wife a member of British high society when he

joined politics, has carefully catered to islamism in Pakistan. the

reason was simple enough for both men: victory is impossible

without it. it is the toll that politics extracts. And men who are

born to succeed easily adapt to it.

it is not very well remembered that when Khan captained the

Pakistan cricket team to a One-day international World Cup win,

he was 39 years old. He had hit the peak of his bowling prowess 10

years before that and had even retired once. in 1992, no one had

NOTEBOOK

saura

Bh si

Ngh

Imran Khan