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Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer turned politician, gestures after arriving to lead the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally in Lahore on October 30, 2011 (Mohsin Raza/Courtesy Reuters).
He was once described as “Taliban without a beard.” Hostile to America’s ally, Pervez Musharraf, for more than a decade Khan has languished on the margins of Pakistani politics. But yesterday, Imran Khan’s mass rally in Lahore took Pakistan’s corrupt, landed, and tribal political establishment by surprise. Khan is an outsider—not born into politics, as many are in Pakistan. Yet he has used his cricket fame, patriotism, philanthropy, and pompous demeanor to mobilize a political movement. In a country mesmerized by personalities more than principles, Khan’s political star is on the rise.
Last month, I had the good fortune of talking with Khan in London. He kindly gave me a copy of his recent book Pakistan: A Personal History. Part history, part memoir, and part political manifesto, it is an important read for those who wish to understand changes underway in Pakistan. Educated at Oxford, thoroughly Westernized, fond of shooting partridges, and still devoted to that most English of games, cricket, it is astounding that Khan would be so vocal and seen as “anti-Western” in Pakistan.
Yet he is not alone. Khan reflects a liberal class of elite Pakistanis who feel that U.S. drone attacks on their nation not only take innocent lives, but violate Pakistan’s sovereignty. For a country that broke away from India to be sovereign, to endanger that on a daily basis is a form of humiliation that is rarely understood in the West. Khan mirrors that palpable sense of dejection.
His rally yesterday in Pakistan should concern us in the West. Yes, in one sense it was a carnival, with Junoon’s Jazba a popular song among attendees, but it was deeper than that. A new generation of Pakistanis is uniting around Khan because he articulates their views on corruption in the Zardari government, rejuvenates their patriotism, and gives voice to the widespread anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan.
A Pew poll recently found Khan is currently the most popular political leader in Pakistan, with nearly one in seven people favoring Khan over all others. But transforming such support into political office will not be easy for Khan or his nascent political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. They lack a national presence, policy platforms, second-tier leadership, and representation in parliament. But Khan remains confident that, just as he defied the odds in cricket, he will do so in politics. Time will tell.
In the coming days, Pakistan’s former president Musharraf will be touring Washington, DC, and New York. He can no longer dismiss Khan as “Taliban without a beard.” The question for Musharraf—who wishes to return to front-line politics in Pakistan—and for us all is: how do we counter terrorism and simultaneously build support for the United States? It is self-defeating to kill terrorists with drones and radicalize an entire nation in the process. Where there is radicalism, terrorism follows.
Thank you for writing about Imran Khan. I always believed that Khan can be the future in a country like pakistan where corruption is embedded within the society . a fresh face like Khan can be the alternative. Finally , You last sentence is so true . wish the US administration understand !
Thanks for writing this great piece Ed.
I am based in Peshawar, Pakistan and have been a member of PTI (Imran Khan’s party) ever since I joined its rallies taking place in front of Pakistani embassy in Sweden in 2007. PTI sweden team was able to positively affect and change Wwedish foreign ministry’s stance about the emergency rule and Chief Justice’s illegal ouster & captivity by the dictator Musharraf.
I, and almost all youth (and hopefully many elders) of my neighborhood and my extended family (based in Peshawar, Mardan and Swabi mostly) as well as my friends, my online acquaintances on facebook & twitter all are voting for Imran Khan.
I and my friends will be running a huge door-to-door campaign to convince more people of our city (Peshawar) to vote for him, though it seems it wouldn’t take too much of convincing to make this possible. I would do it after consulting with PTI’s team so that the same locality is not served multiple times. I hope that more people would follow suit and run such campaigns or at least try to convince more friends and family members.
I was a part of the October 30th gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. It was a huge gathering of about 80,000 people from all walks of life. There were people from Lahore including me and a lot other I personally know of, who attended a political gathering for the very first time in their lives. But the dominant majority of the crowd was from outside Lahore, brought in through buses and vans.
Despite the positive vibes about the show, I must confess there seems to be a huge gap in terms of quality between Imran Khan and the other members of his party, who presumably come from an educational background markedly different from Imran Khan’s Aitchison( an elite school in Lahore)and Oxford University background. This should be a problem in building up a team that is ready to deliver on complicated issues of national and international importance that Pakistan faces today.
@Tauseef: First of all let’s set the record straight here as far as the numbers are concerned, there were more than 200,000 people from all walks of life attending 30th October gathering. Secondly, majority of the people were from the city of Lahore where it was conducted. It seems as if you are deliberately trying to sabotage this event. History is being made in Pakistan. It is not a crime to have a high standard academic background and certainly there will not be disconnect within PTI as you have forgotten that Imran Khan was a cricketer and the captain of the team which comprised of people coming from different backgrounds. Yes the problem may lie in the organizational structure of the party which is quite understandable owing to being in it’s teens.
I think who ever oppose or try to deny the historic gathering of Imran Khan’s October 30th at Minar-e-Pakistan. He/She are not sincere with Pakistan. We’ve tried so called PPP and PML(N)and everyone know what they did to or still doing to our beloved homeland. They are all after the money and the seats nothing else. we need a revolution no matter what it costs.
Imran Khan is on the rise & he is the one who can do that: change in Pakistan. More power to his elbow. Every sincere Pakistani should support & vote him.Insha Allah he rescue Pakistan from the current misries.