ISLAMABAD – Imran Khan was catapulted to global fame as a World Cup cricketchampion, but the man known in the West as a celebrity playboy wonPakistan’s election as a populist, religiously devout, anti-corruptionreformist.

The cricket World Cup winner is on the brink of becoming Pakistan’s newprime minister after his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party won the mostseats in Wednesday’s election.

He fell short of an overall majority, however, and will have to form acoalition with independents and smaller parties if he is to becomePakistan’s leader, two decades after he entered politics.

In a speech claiming victory Thursday Khan struck a conciliatory tonefollowing the acrimonious election, vowing to build a “humanitarian state”and tackle corruption that has been “eating our country like a cancer”.

Khan’s victory is coloured by allegations that the electoral playing fieldwas fixed for the erstwhile fast bowler by the powerful military — anaccusation he and the army deny.

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, including a nine-year marriage to British filmproducer and activist Jemima 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 –an astronomical departure from his days plastered in the British tabloids.

And just last month he roused the ire of women after saying feminism has”degraded the role of a mother”.

Khan is also described as impulsive and brash, too tolerant of militancyand fostering close links to Islamists, amid speculation over his ties toPakistan’s military establishment.

But to his legions of fans, he is uncorrupted and generous, spending hisyears off the pitch building hospitals and a university.

“Imran is honest. He is a cool leader,” Ammar Haider, 20, told AFP aftervoting for PTI.

– ‘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 PTInever securing more than a few seats in 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 PTI’s popularity surged with hordes of young Pakistanis who grew upidolising Khan as a cricket icon reaching voting age.

Khan admits his party was ill-prepared to capitalise on the gains duringthe 2013 election. But that was then.

“For the first time, we’ll be going into elections prepared,” he has saidpreviously of 2018.

Five years later PTI ran a nationwide campaign including areas far from itsnorthwestern and urban strongholds.

Polls showed PTI’s popularity climbing nationally going into the crunchvote while the outgoing Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) limped into thecontest, complaining this was the result of military pressure.

Analyst Ayesha Siddiqa said Khan may have tapped into anger amongPakistan’s growing middle class.

“Remember they grew up on this narrative of a corrupt Pakistan beingdamaged and needing a new leadership… In all this hue and cry, we didn’tnotice there is another Pakistan there that wanted this change,” she toldAFP.

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 charge of blasphemy, spurringfears his leadership could embolden extremists.

“It’s hard to judge anyone when they’re in opposition because the realchallenge is when you take over,” said journalist Arifa Noor. “On thedownside he’s playing up the religion card.”

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 once educated Taliban stalwartsMullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

And earlier this month, the Al-Qaeda-linked Harkat-ul-Mujahideen announcedits support for Khan’s party, with pictures of the US-designated terroristgroup’s leader posing with PTI hopefuls posted online.

Khan, though, grabbed the best political opportunity many believed he wouldever have to seize the biggest prize of the sporting icon’s life. – APP/AFP