Pakistan’s Imran Khan: Cricket legend who shed playboy image

For Pakistani cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan, his party's first place in a national election, putting him on the brink of becoming the country's next prime minister, is the culmination of a battle that started more than two decades ago.

For years, he was dismissed as a political dilettante who could not convert his personal popularity into significant seats in parliament for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Movement for Justice, he founded. But Wednesday’s election has dramatically changed that.

Khan began his cricket career in 1971 as a fast bowler known for his pace and aggressive tactics. By the time he retired more than 20 years later, he was regarded as one of the world’s best ever all-rounders.

A glamorous fixture of London’s high society in his younger days, he was captain of Pakistan’s team of talented but wayward stars and – with a reputation as a stern taskmaster – led them to win cricket’s World Cup for the first time in 1992. He is still known as “Kaptaan” (captain) in Pakistan.

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After his retirement, Khan raised funds to open a cancer hospital in the memory of his mother in his native Lahore in 1994. He has mostly shed the playboy image and made public shows of devotion to Islam, building a large political following in northern Pakistan, especially with the conservative Pashtun population.

Earlier this year, he married his spiritual adviser.

Khan's previous two marriages, particularly to his first wife, British heiress Jemima Khan, captivated international tabloids.

Khan started the PTI in 1996, but until 2013 it briefly held only one seat in parliament. “It’s been a 22-year struggle for justice for the people of Pakistan,” Khan told Reuters in an interview earlier this month.

His party became the country’s third-largest in the National Assembly in the previous election, benefiting in part from a groundswell of support, especially from young, urban voters fed up with the country’s corruption.

US policy

Khan has been critical of the United States’s policy in the region and vocally opposed drone strikes on Pakistani territory. He will have to manage a tense relationship with Washington, which has accused Islamabad of not doing enough to root out Taliban militants.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump tweeted that the United States had “foolishly” given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid.

Khan opposes the United States’s open-ended presence in Afghanistan. In his victory speech on Thursday, he said he wanted “mutually beneficial” relations with Washington, and peace in Afghanistan.

Khan has denied colluding with the military, which has ruled the country for almost half its history, saying those who make such accusations are trying to preserve a corrupt system.

Khan will have to urgently resolve a currency crisis that threatens Pakistan’s fast-growing economy, which expanded by 5.8 per cent in the past year but will most likely need its second bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 2013.

He has said his future government will launched an anti-corruption campaign and poverty reduction programme modelled on China, Pakistan’s traditional ally that has financed billions of dollars of infrastructure projects.

At the same time, he has promised to build an “Islamic welfare state”, create 10 million jobs and build five million homes for the poor.

Asked how he would fund such social spending, he vowed to double Pakistan’s woefully low tax collection rates – the country has one of the world’s lowest tax-to-GDP ratios – by cracking down on wealthy tax dodgers. – Reuters