Imran Khan: ‘Aliens’, ‘Electables’, and ‘Man of the Match’

Few in India care or seem to have wrapped their heads around Pakistan’s just-concluded general elections. As this column goes to press, all the results are not yet out. Amidst widespread allegations of rigging, Pakistan’s Election Commission, citing technical glitches, has been somewhat tardy in declaring the outcome. The latest trends, however, clearly show Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), winning 115 of the 272 seats contested in the national assembly. In this lower house of the bicameral Majlis-e-Shura, the remaining 70 of 342 seats are reserved for women and minorities. The magic number to cross is thus 137. PTI seems poised to reach that mark first, either on its own, or with the help of independents.

These elections in Pakistan have been both violent and controversial. They have also contributed new words to the country’s political vocabulary. One popular word is “aliens,” an ambiguous translation of khalai makhlooq. No prizes for guessing who these “invisible forces” are. Imprisoned former PM and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Nawaz Sharif used the phrase to refer sarcastically to the army and intelligence services, blaming them for meddling with the political system and engineering his exit from the fray. “Electables,” on the other hand, sometimes referred to as “lotas” or rounded pots because they sway from side to side, are those leaders who switch allegiance, carrying their captive vote-banks and constituents with them. Imran Khan himself banked on several to surge ahead of his rivals.

The ghost of the military dictator President Zia-ul-Haq came to haunt these elections in a rather unfortunate way for Nawaz Sharif. Zia not only Islamised Pakistan, but also introduced in 1973 the “Sadiq” and “Ameen,” or truthful and trustworthy, clauses 62 and 63 in the Constitution, as desirable leadership qualities in imitation of the Prophet. Who would have thought that these would serve as flimsy excuses for the judicial coup which framed one of Pakistan’s richest men on unproven corruption charges involving a paltry sum of some 15,000 dirhams, disqualifying him for life from standing for election or holding office?

Incidentally, the smoking gun was the same set of notorious “Panama Papers” which had named several Indians, none of whom has been indicted on their basis. The widely held perception is that the army has arm-twisted the judiciary to act on its behalf in clearing the road for Imran Khan. Ironically, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, head of the five-member Pakistan Supreme Court that disqualified Sharif, had earlier declared that “Sadiq” and “Ameen,” were not only “obscure and impracticable” but created a “feast of legal obscurities” and “nightmares of interpretation”. Sharif himself, much to his regret now, failed to scrap them because of their utility against his arch-rival, Asif Ali Zardari of the PPP, alleged to be notoriously corrupt.

But howsoever anyone might carp or cavil, it is Imran Khan who is the man of this match. Khan comes from a liberal, upper-class Lahore family of Pathan lineage, but one ideologically committed to the Pakistan movement. Former cricketing star and playboy, Khan started his party some 22 years ago, after retiring from cricket and taking to philanthropy. He built two cancer hospitals in memory of his mother who died of the disease. After sowing his wild oats, so to speak, he turned both serious and pious, largely owing to his mother’s illness and death.

After a nine-year marriage (1995-2004) to Jewish heiress Jemima Goldsmith, who converted to Islam and had two children with him, he married Reham Khan, a Pakistani-British journalist, but that marriage lasted just nine months (2014-2015). More recently he married a Sufi teacher and healer, Bushra Maneka. All the ladies are considerably younger than him. He is also known to have children from other partners, including another British heiress, Sita White, whose daughter, a Los Angeles court ruled in 1997, he had fathered.

None of this has deterred Khan. He has persisted in his political ambitions as also in his stated mission to transform the ailing state of Pakistan. Khan’s idealism and sincerity were unmistakable when he began but have considerably dimmed over the years. Worse, he is considered close to the Taliban and other extremist groups. For us in India, Imran’s anointment may make little difference. The real power behind the throne in Pakistan has always been the army. Khan, however, is well-liked in India and was hugely popular as a cricketer. Indeed, he was one of the greatest captains the game has known, leading Pakistan to its maiden World Cup victory in 1992. He will need all his leadership qualities, luck, and skill to steer his nation to a better future. But how free a hand will he get if he becomes the Prime Minister? We will simply have to wait and watch cautiously to see how things unfold.

The author is a poet and professor at JNU. Views expressed are personal.