ISLAMABAD – Imran Khan was catapulted to global fame as a World Cup cricketchampion, but the man known in the West as a celebrity playboy has becomeprime minister of Pakistan as a populist, religiously devout,anti-corruption reformist.
The former national cricket captain was sworn in as leader of thenuclear-armed country of 207 million people on Saturday, coming to power asPakistan faces challenges on multiple fronts.
His “New Pakistan” represents an end to decades of rotating leadership bythe ousted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan PeoplesParty, punctuated by stretches of military rule.
“I promise that we will bring that change, for which this nation wasstarving,” he told MPs during a raucous parliament session on Friday, whichsaw the opposition chant protest slogans against him.
In the West, the man who led Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup champion cricketteam is typically seen through the prism of his celebrity and memories ofhis high-profile romances.
These include a nine-year marriage to British film producer and activistJemima Goldsmith, then a university student.
Back home the thrice-married 65-year-old cuts a more conservative personaas a devout Muslim, often carrying prayer beads and nurturing beliefs inliving saints.
Earlier this year, he married his spiritual advisor Bushra Maneka, withwedding photos showing the new bride clad in an ultra-conservative veil –a huge departure from his days in the British tabloids.
Also this year he roused the ire of women after saying feminism has”degraded the role of a mother”.
Khan is also described as impulsive and brash and has been accused of beingtoo tolerant of militancy and of having close ties to Pakistan’s militaryestablishment.
But to his legions of fans, especially young people, he is uncorrupted andgenerous, spending his years off the pitch building hospitals and auniversity.
– ‘End the hatred’ –
Khan entered Pakistan’s chaotic politics in 1996 promising to fight graft.
For his first decade and a half as a politician he sputtered, with hisPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party never securing more than a few seatsin the national assembly.
“Sports teaches you that life is not in a straight line,” he told AFPearlier this year. “You take the knocks. You learn from your mistakes.”
In 2012 the PTI’s popularity surged with hordes of young Pakistanis whogrew up idolising Khan as a cricket icon reaching voting age.
Khan admits his party was ill-prepared to capitalise on the wave during the2013 election. But that was then.
Five years later the PTI ran a nationwide campaign, mobilising support inareas far from its northwestern and urban strongholds.
Polls showed the party’s popularity climbing nationally going into thecrunch vote while the outgoing PML-N limped into the contest, complainingthe surge in support for Khan was the result of military pressure.
Analysts have said that along with the youth vote, Khan may have tappedinto anger among Pakistan’s growing middle class, fed up with thecorruption that characterised both the PPP and PML-N governments.
Some fear Khan’s mercurial nature is unsuited to being prime minister.
He has raised eyebrows by increasingly catering to religious hardliners,particularly over the hugely inflammatory issue of blasphemy, spurringfears his leadership could embolden extremists.
Khan has also been attacked for his repeated calls to hold talks withmilitants and for his party’s alliance with Sami ul Haq, the so-called”Father of the Taliban” whose madrassas educated Taliban stalwarts MullahOmar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.
In July, the Al-Qaeda-linked Harkat-ul-Mujahideen announced its support forKhan’s party, with pictures of the US-designated terrorist group’s leaderposing with PTI hopefuls posted online.
Khan, though, grabbed the best opportunity many believed he would ever haveto seize the biggest prize of the sporting icon’s life. – APP/AFP