NEW YORK – A leading American paper Saturday hailed Imran Khan’s“impressive” election victory and urged the United States, China and Indiato ease his way towards reforming Pakistan.

“His (Imran Khan’s) main call is to reform Pakistan’s woeful governance andput an end to the patronage networks that have facilitated widespreadgraft,” the New York Times said in an its main editorial: ‘A New Batsmanfor Pakistan’.“In a country as corrupt and troubled as Pakistan, a new, charismaticleader is bound to raise hopes; whether Mr. Khan can deliver is a fardifferent question,” the Times said.

It added, “Imran Khan, the cricketer who led Pakistan to a glorious WorldCup victory over its former colonial ruler, England, a quarter century ago,led his political party to an equally impressive victory in Pakistan’snational elections this week.”

Noting that Pakistan’s woes were many and grave, it said that corruptionruns deep the last Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, was imprisoned two weeksago. “The national debt is ballooning, the electricity grid isdisintegrating and jobs are so scarce that Pakistani workers are compelledto fan out across the Middle East to take whatever work they can find.

“On top of that, terrorists strike often, relations with the United Statesare bad and politics are chronically unstable …” , the editorial added.Although his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party did not win enough seats inParliament to form a government alone, the Times said, it “still scored bignot only in the national Parliament but also in regional races across thecountry, a rare feat in Pakistani politics, giving Mr. Khan, 65,considerable leverage to pursue his goals. Those he listed in his victoryaddress were a catalog of what urgently needs to be done.”

In foreign affairs, the paper noted Imran Khan desire to seek to improvedrelations with the United States, whose policies in the region he hasfiercely criticized. “Mr. Khan also pledged to seek an end to theterritorial dispute with India over Kashmir, which has long set theneighbours at loggerheads, and to improve relations with China, Pakistan’smajor creditor.

“How far Mr. Khan can go in changing Pakistan’s political culture, helpingthe poor and fixing foreign relations will depend on many factors,”including what coalition he cobbles together and how he manages a rapidlyswelling debt.Calling him “indisputably charming and charismatic”, the editorial said.

In the end, Mr. Khan offers a chance of change, however remote, for acountry in dire need of it.“Any degree of success would benefit not only the Pakistanis, but alsotheir neighbors and creditors, and the United States, which, for better orfor worse, is tied to Pakistan in its struggle “against extremism”.

“It would be wise for the Trump administration, as well as for India andChina, to do what they can to ease Mr. Khan’s way,” the Times added