Imran Khan Niazi: From the Cricket Pitch to Prime Minister of Pakistan

After scorching the 22 yard cricket pitches, during his international cricket career, spanning about 22 years, with his “all-rounder” exploits – winning the world cup in 1992 being his crowning glory - Imran Khan retired from cricket to start PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf) Party in, 1996, & after 22, rather, inglorious years, succeeded in becoming the PM of Pakistan. In the process, a Casanova, with a penchant for blondes & a liberal has transformed into a rosary carrying devout Muslim hobnobbing with the Taliban, earning the sobriquet “Taliban Khan”. Imran’s 2^nd wife of 10 months, Reham Khan, in her tell all book, whose excerpts were released on the eve of the elections, portrayed him as Janus faced - a narcotic addict, bisexual, misogynist playing sexual favours within his party, a depraved individual with many illegitimate children including 5 in India - that, perhaps, dented but did not damage his electoral prospects fully. Khan’s 3^rd wife & his spiritual guide, Bushra Riaz Watoo AKA “Pinky Pirni” – “Pinky” being her nick name & “Pirni” since she is apparently a Sufi mystic – whom Imran allegedly married on 1^st Jan 2018, kowtowing to some divine apparition revealed to her,  will now be the first lady of Pak.

Pak’s infamous former ISI Chief – Hamid Gul – is widely believed to have orchestrated Imran’s entry into politics & the latter became the “chosen one” of the Military in 2018, to become PM. The Military doctored the electoral pitch by getting the judiciary to unseat & disqualify Nawaz Sharief from the position of PM & later jailed him & his daughter, Maryam, on allegedly trumped up charges. Later they prodded many of PML –N (Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz) party-men, to shift allegiance to PTI, broke up MQM – a party of Indian immigrants to Pak post partition- in its stronghold, Karachi & controlled & censored the media, helping PTI secure about 118 seats in a 272 elected member assembly.  With neither the PML- N nor the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) likely to extend support to the PTI, the 50 member “others” would become an important constituency & expect the Military to work on them to help the “chosen one”. The lack of a majority seems a strategic attempt – by the Military – to keep a mercurial, Imran in check to prevent a Nawaz – another of the Military’s creation of the 1980’s –redux.  As expected, the opposition alleged rigging but might not paralyze governance with street protests, like Imran did, post losing the 2013 elections, for the lack of critical military backing. Imran termed the recent polls as “the fairest in Pak history” even as he promised to provide assistance to the opposition to investigate instances of electoral fraud which in short is nothing but good optics to obfuscate criticism.

Imran’s public address vide a video link claiming victory even before the Election Commission verified & notified the complete results – largely focussed on his vision for Pak on 3 broad areas

(1)Governance Model: Re-create an Islamic republic of Pakistan founded on the Prophet’s teachings & implemented at Medina to take care of the downtrodden including the widows & the poor. This shall appeal to his core conservative constituency. Promise to safeguard the interest of ordinary citizens & enforcing accountability for all is an extension of campaign rhetoric which never goes out of fashion.

(2)Economic Policy: A neo liberal economic thrust - to extricate Pak from the economic mess – by improving ease of doing business to appeal to the Pak diaspora to invest & create jobs even as the country takes advantage of CPEC(China Pak Economic Corridor). He promised to safeguard tax revenue & decrease govt. expenses

(3)Foreign Policy:  Focus on strengthening relations with China, envisioning open borders with Afghanistan, reset of relations with the US from being one sided to one based on mutual benefit, improving on the time tested relations with Saudi Arabia to resolve their inner tensions & improvement of relations with India based on enhancing trade along with addressing the core issue of Kashmir & attendant human right violations in the vale.

Foreign Affairs is the preserve of the Army & when Nawaz tried an independent furrow he was cut down to size by the Pak Military; aware of an Army veto, Imran is likely to tread a tutored line on foreign policy. Therefore, India might not be amused at the Kashmir reference & hence a rapprochement between the two countries is unlikely especially since an anti-Pak rant could emerge as an important poll issue during the Indian Parliamentary elections poised 6-9 months away. Imran’s vision of “Open Borders” with Afghanistan – reminiscent to those in the European Union - is interesting; the Pashtuns – who constitute a majority in Southern Afghanistan & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan - have a historical angst against the colonial legacy of the Durand line – agreed in 1896 - the line of division between the two countries.  Imran is a Pashtun in a country dominated by the Punjabis in all spheres including the army.

Imran would order conversion of the PM & Governor houses into hospitals or colleges to gain goodwill & settle down to the task of hard negotiations with the IMF for a bail-out package especially since Saudi Arabia or China are unlikely to throw a life-line. This might include a devaluation of the rupee, further opening up of the economy & other reforms that might hurt vested interests; enhancing tax revenues is never easy & even if he cuts non-military spends, he would create further enemies. Expect him to be busy staving off pressure from the United Nations Financial Action Task Force to shut the tap on terror financing; a catch 22 situation it is, for he is damned if he does & damned if he does not. Constrained as he is along with many of the other elected legislators of the PTI - due to the inexperience in governance - the Ministerial team that he assembles is of considerable interest to policy wonks. He can legitimately claim credit for his incorruptible image & ascending the apex in 2 diverse fields – Cricket & Politics – which is rare but would soon emerge chastened on realization that lording over the cricket establishment in Pak is not the same as presiding over the destiny of Pak, prone as he is to self-aggrandizement & lacking coalition & consensus building skills.  If his mercurial personna finally takes on the Military establishment he will end up like Nawaz Sharief.