Imran Khan – A new dawn for Pakistan?

Ziauddin Choudhury

It appears all but certain that Imran Khan Niazi (that is his full name) will be the eighteenth Prime
Minister of Pakistan (excluding the interim/caretaker PMs) in the country’s 71 years’ history. Some of
the Prime Ministers held office at the pleasure of the President when the country had a Presidential
system, but all of them held office at the pleasure of one supreme master, the Pakistan Army.

For Imran Khan it has been a long journey to this office, a journey of twenty-two years to be precise.
Known for his extraordinary fame in Cricket world and for leading his country to several cricket victories
internationally, the debonair Khan traded his cricket bat and ball for politics rather unexpectedly using
his parental place of Multan in Punjab as the testing ground. Although ethnically Pashtun, the Khan
family hailed from Niazi tribe of Multan, and was not known for dabbling in politics unlike other political
families of Punjab such as Daultana, Leghari, Sharif, Khokar, etc. Imran’s father was a civil engineer, and
grand father a physician. But the family was wealthy, and Imran’s father gave him the best education
that money could buy. For his high school Imran went to that princely Aitchison College of Lahore –an
institute that the British had built for scions of tribal chiefs, and for college to Oxford, England. But the
fame that he would achieve later in life was not because of his educational institutes, but Cricket –that
sport of former British colonies that people swoon for even now. Therefore, Imran’s sudden penchant
for politics had puzzled people in his country.

But not for long. Soon it transpired that although he had neither political lineage nor any big league
political infrastructure to support him, he had the blessings of the king makers of his country. This would
become apparent when his ragtag political party Tehreeke Insaf (TPI) that had no visible sources of
funding would be able to hold political rallies in major Pakistan cities and draw crowd much of which
was attracted by curiosity. His populist calls for ending corruption and emphasis on ultra-nationalism
bore fruit to signal to the powers that be that Imran Khan might be able to create a new party that is
dissociated from the old order of politics of Bhuttos and Sharifs, but was strictly wedded to Pakistan
establishment ideology based on religion. Imran Khan’s initial attempt at gaining an electoral seat for his
fledgling party in 1997 failed, but nevertheless he soldiered on by fraternizing with General Pervez
Musharraf who ousted an elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999. With Musharraf’s tacit
support Imran would hold more political rallies and gather a larger political following mostly from the
right who would normally support either Muslim League (varieties), or religious parties. But when his
first nationwide attempt failed to win except only one seat for himself Musharraf withdrew his support
from him. But he would have his rapport with the Army once again after Musharraf’s ouster from
power.

From 2002 TPI thrived in populist movement of one kind or another venting grievance. In 2007 PTI
joined movement against General Musharraf, but Khan did not participate in 2008 elections calling
these fraudulent. But he did participate in 2013 with more impressive results winning 31 seats.
(Ironically, one and a half years later he called these same elections fraudulent and demanded new
elections.)

Sadly, the populist calls that Imran Khan had been making to draw a sizeable section of people to his
support are no different from what one of his famous predecessors had made to make waves five
decades ago. Imran’s calls for ending corruption, justice for all, and his stand against USA resonate well
with Zulfiqar Bhutto’s call for Roti, Kapra, aur Mokan for all and standing tall against foreign aggression.
The slogans of Bhutto won him votes for his People’s Party in 1970 in Pakistan. It appears similar
rhetoric has earned votes for Imran Khan nearly forty-eight years later.

Will the rhetoric be enough to sustain him as Prime Minister?

For one thing, much as he protests that he will bring a total makeover to Pakistan politics, this makeover
will be cosmetic and not real since politics in that country is not managed by political leaders but the
Army establishment. Since the birth of Pakistan, the Army has maneuvered and managed politics in the
country. Democracy, rule by people, never happened. Second, the nature of society in Pakistan which is
structured by class and status. According to political analysts a fundamental element in Pakistan politics
is biradari or clan loyalty. People have traditionally voted to power people based on their own clan
affiliation. Government in Pakistan is not determined by choice of political ideologies, but biradari.
Imran Khan used his biradari for his political campaign but depended on Army to weigh in to counter
similar such campaigns.

There is apparently no nexus between TPI and the Army just as there is no visible sign of Army control of
Pakistan politics. But it is a historical fact that all politics has been played by one piper of Hamelin—the
Army in all its seventy years of existence, from Liaqat Ali Khan to Nawaz Shareef. Elections have been
held, sometimes with some amount of transparency, but after the participants—at least the next head
of government—had been vetted by the Army.

The army’s role in Pakistan politics had been fated by partition of India. When Pakistan was created in
1947 it had inherited only 17 percent of revenues of undivided India, but 31 percent of the armed
forces. The Army naturally wanted a large share of the new country’s resources and hence access to
power. Inefficiency of the political leaders and their diversity of origin and objectives provided a helping
hand to the Army and its later control of government. The Army used religion as a rationale to bridge
the diversity in ethnicity and language of the new country in one hand, and obsession with Kashmir and
Indian aggression as another to strengthen itself. Now it will be up to Imran Khan to see if he has the will
or power to tame this power house.

I will end this article with comments from a Pakistani journalist recently appearing in a journal.

“Whenever the Pakistan Army brings in a new political order — and it has been doing this since the last
40 years or so — they lay out the dos and the don’ts of what it means to be the Prime Minister of
Pakistan. However, it has often been seen, that after a short stint in the PM’s office, this ‘puppet
leadership’ tries to spread its wings, and when these wings are clipped, there is a clash. So, it is the
Pakistan Army that has come out as a victor in this election, as it has ensured a leadership that will serve
its interests, and till it does, things will be good for Khan. But the day Khan decides to challenge the
Army, he will face the same fate that the Sharifs, and the Bhuttos met in the past.”