ISLAMABAD: Clad in a tracksuit and ankle weights, Imran Khan lounges in aplush chair and announces this is his political moment: the World Cupcricket champion believes the power in Pakistan is his for the taking,reports AFP.Often likened to US President Donald Trump for his populist flair andTwitter tirades, he prefers to draw parallels with former US presidentialhopeful Bernie Sanders or British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“It is one of the ridiculous comparisons,” he sighs, when asked about Trumpduring an interview with AFP at his hillside home near Islamabad.
But despite once describing a potential meeting with the US president as a“bitter pill”, Khan says he would be prepared to work with Trump to stopthe “insanity” in Afghanistan.
“This war will only end through talks,” he says. “The solution does not liein more bombs and guns.”
After years in the wilderness, the former all-rounder is riding a wave ofpopulism as rival parties stumble, decrying the venality of Pakistan’spolitical elite and promising an end to rampant corruption if he can win ageneral election due this year.
In the West, the man who led Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup champion cricketteam is typically seen through the prism of celebrity, with memories of hisheadline-grabbing romances and playboy reputation standing out.
In Pakistan, the 65-year-old cuts a more conservative persona as a devoutMuslim, often carrying prayer beads and nurturing beliefs in living saints.
To his legions of fans, Khan is uncorrupted and generous, spending hisyears off the pitch building hospitals and a university.
“(He) deserves a chance over all the other leeches,” says supporter ShahidKhan, a 26-year-old engineer.
But Imran is also described as impulsive and brash.
Imran entered Pakistan’s chaotic politics more than two decades agopromising to fight graft and build a welfare state in the nation of over200 million.
But for his first 15 years as a politician, he sputtered, his PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party never securing more than a few seats in thenational assembly.
“Sports teaches you that life is not in a straight line,” he says.
“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.
The wave of youth support accompanied festering dissatisfaction among themiddle class with the country’s corrupt and dynastic political elite.
Khan admits his party was ill-prepared to capitalise on the gains in timefor the 2013 election.
But that was then. “For the first time, we’ll be going into electionsprepared,” he says of 2018.
He points to his party’s governance of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(K-P) province as a blueprint for nationwide programmes focusing on humandevelopment.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist based in Peshawar, says the partyhas done well on legislation — but implementation has been slow, as PTIgrapples with inexperienced political newcomers and indiscipline.
“He has been there for more than four and half years,” Yusufzai says.
“People are trying to figure out, what change did he bring?”
Others fear Khan’s mercurial nature is unsuited to being prime minister.
Last month he made headlines after asking his supporters in a tweet to prayhe finds “personal happiness which, except for a few years, I have beendeprived of”, following still unverified claims he had married hisspiritual adviser.
“Imran Khan is very, very impulsive — trait leaders score low on,” saysHarris Chaudhry, a 23-year-old student.
Detractors have also attacked Imran for his repeated calls to hold talkswith militants and for his party’s alliance with Sami ul Haq, the so-calledFather of the Taliban whose madrassas once educated militant supremosMullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Khan defends the partnership, saying Haq is instrumental to reform andhelping poor students at risk of being radicalised in Pakistan’s long waron extremism.
To his opponents, he is merely latching on to a groundswell of nakedpopulism.
“Imran Khan is right now the beneficiary of a wave of celebrity politicianswho are anti-politicians,” explains Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador ofPakistan to the US and Srilanka suggesting Khan has also benefited fromties with the military, whose penchant for meddling in Pakistani politicsis well known.
Still, many believe this is the best political opportunity Khan will everhave.
His arch-nemesis Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the premiership in July,leaving the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in disarray; whilethe once mighty Pakistan People’s Party has wilted into a shell of itsformer self.
This election, Khan says, is PTI’s “biggest chance” at victory, even asdoubts reverberate after his party lost a by-election this week. But whenasked if, should he lose, would he hand over the party leadership to asuccessor, Khan is cryptic.
“I’m the only cricket captain in our history who left when he still couldhave been the captain,” he says. – Agencies