As Indian cricket fans, we hardly enjoyed Imran Khan's performance as an all rounder and a good skipper. Many years later - even some of us - hardcore anti-Pak cricket team, have sympathies for the cricket icon-turned a disastrous politician but a former Prime Minister.
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| Many years back : Gujarat CM and Pakistani Neta Imran |
In 1996, Imran Khan had just entered politics and this is what he said:
"Politics is considered a dirty business, so it’s not a place you go to get respect. It’s not a place for decent people, and we are in this quagmire because decent people have stayed out."
Thirty years since then wat he has been reflecting upon is anybody's guess.
In 2024, while by June India got another round of swearing in of NDA Govt under Narendra Modi; in Pakistan the 'dirty' politics was still evolving.
Despite a severe crackdown, millions voted for the PTI (Imran's party) in elections in February 2024 and the party, which was forced to field candidates as independents, claimed victory amid allegations of massive vote rigging in favour of the ruling government.
Protests erupted across the country days after the elections.
Moreover, the supreme court of Pakistan ruled that the PTI was a political party and eligible for 20 further seats in a post-election dispute.
But things have been ruffled and Imran detractors especially army was displeased. Perhaps the sinister plans to attack Hindu tourists in Pahalgam started then.
For most of its history, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators.
It is argued that brief democratic intervals were only possible because the military became so hugely unpopular that it was left with no other option than to temporarily cede space to democracy. Mostly - in papers and in name.
The last military dictator was forced to quit in 2008.
Of course, instead of moving forward, Pakistan has slid backwards.
"Its electoral process and its democracy have lost all credibility – not only in the eyes of ordinary Pakistanis, but in the eyes of the world," said an article in 'The Guardian' penned by Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, a former Senator.
In 1996, to the young politician (Imran was then only 44) -- 'India Today' had posed two questions.
Q. You are willing to risk your reputation and credibility?
Imran's response was : Personally, what is best for me is to stay out and enjoy myself...I mean, I have all the privileges without any office.
But we don’t come to this earth to only think about ourselves and our BMWs, our houses and our wives.
second question was -
You have the experience of running a hospital but that’s quite different from running the country.
Imran showed confidence and answered: "Basically it’s management. I have certain skills and I know my limitations.
I know how to get the best talent and put the best people in the right places. The system is more important than an individual.
Like Benazir who ruled like an empress, not knowing her limitations. She, going to the same university as I, makes herself the finance minister which I would never dream of doing."
Of all these - the striking phrase that appeals/excites me is Imran saying - "I know my limitations".
Oh boy, the poor and helpless man of 2026 and his limitations. The treatment meted out to onetime national hero is a clear evidence on how Pakistani generals rule that country.
Now, take a few more lines from the article by Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. It says -
"The larger question is why the military is allowed to choose who gets to run Pakistan.
For now, political leaders and parties seem uninterested in asking, let alone resolving this question.
Politics has been reduced to a pick me, love me, choose me affair."
Pakistan faces severe systemic challenges—including deep economic debt, elite corruption, and heavy military influence—leading many global analysts to describe it as a fragile or failing state. From the beginning it was on an erroneous path.
Meaning the cause of its creation vis-a-vis Partition of India and making the religion the reason of its birth.
Rituals in the name of faith may be the path to Paradise for some, while others would retort that ritual devoid of depth of genuine belief is merely a camouflage for the shallow understanding.
While this is an era of computer chips; Pakistan holds the distinction of producing and harbouring terrorists -- with or without Imran.
In his 1996 interview - Imran also said the frenzied chants of "Prime Minister" slogan in his favour long before he became one --
in effect meant -- "... nothing, because you can be a prime minister, a caretaker prime minister or a puppet prime minister. I’m interested in reforms, not in posts."
Imran was also asked :
Q. You talk of rooting out corruption as if it’s an easy task.
His reply was:
You have to take on the power structure through clean people. That is why I didn’t join any of the existing parties because they would have destroyed me.
In Benazir’s case, Asif Ali Zardari was regarded as the most corrupt man, and I’m not surprised that Pakistan became the second-most corrupt country in the world.
"We have plans to strengthen the judiciary and decentralise the bureaucracy, and will put the plans into action if and when we come into power."
His interaction with the 'India Today' journalist Harinder Baweja on Rajiv Gandhi was particularly important. The question was:
"Rajiv Gandhi was "Mr Clean" too, but was overtaken by the system".
Imran responded stating, : "That depends on how desperately you need that chair. You always have the option of walking away.
I can’t talk about Rajiv but most people enjoy power without being responsible."
The elections in 2018 brought Imran Khan to power and there was controversy too.
But the polls in Pakistan in 2024 denied him power arbitrarily.
In 2018, Imran Khan counted the military as an ally; by 2024 it had become a foe.
"Now Khan is exactly where his opponents were a few years ago: in jail, waiting for the tide to turn. If history is an example, the tide will surely turn at some point for Khan as it did for his opponents," goes the article in 'The Guardian'.
ends
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