Imran pitches it well for better ties with India

As I write this, Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, is set to become his country’s next prime minister. His party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged as the largest party winning 115 of the 270 National Assembly seats, and the other two major ones, the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PMLN) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have won 64 and 43 seats respectively. There have been allegations of “massive rigging” and “military interference” by the PML-N and the PPP, but that could be just sour grapes. However, it is no secret that the powerful Pakistan army wanted an Imran Khan victory. Relations between the PML-N’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (presently in jail on charges of corruption) and the military establishment were edgy for quite some time.

Be that as it may, how will New Delhi react to the new Pakistan prime minister-designate, and, just as important, how will he look on India?

First, the man himself. Without a doubt, he is the most unorthodox politician ever to have emerged from the Indian sub-continent. The only parallel one can think of is Indian politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, also a cricketer-turnedpolitician (he is currently a minister in the Punjab government in India). But Sidhu as a likely prime minister of India? That’s unthinkable! Apart from Imran’s cricket heroics (he led Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992), he has been a regular on the Indian social celebrity scene. The late glamorous Parmeshwar Godrej, widow of one of India’s leading businessmen, Adi Godrej, was a close friend of Imran and would regularly throw lavish power-packed parties for him whenever he visited Mumbai. Some of the biggest names in Bollywood and in Indian business would be there. According to Imran’s biographer, Frank Huzur, India’s leading actress Zeenat Aman was in a relationship with him, but their plans to get married were thwarted by then Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, because he felt that Imran, who was one of his favourites, should not marry an Indian. Imran also divorced his first wife, Jemima Goldsmith, mainly because her Jewish faith would be an insurmountable impediment to his political ambitions. Politics and ambition stand before love for him. To add more colour to his personality, according to one of his former wives, Reham Khan, he has five illegitimate Indian children! If true, one wonders if any of them will make a public appearance after Imran becomes Pakistan’s leader.

Frivolity aside, Imran Khan’s first utterances on India in his “victory speech” on Thursday, have been true to form. He said he was willing to take two steps towards India, if New Delhi took the first step. And that first step is, of course, Kashmir. That must have been music to the ears of his biggest support base, the Pakistan military establishment. However, from India’s point of view, the most worrying aspect of the Pakistan election is the support he needs to form a government. This cannot come from either the PML-N, or the PPP. It may have to come from some independents, or from one of the smaller parties. Among them is the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a radical religio-political party. The other parties have done poorly in the election, including the one supported by Hafiz Saeed, who masterminded the Mumbai terror attack. Clearly, the Pakistani public, though it may be devout, is not, by and large, swayed by the fundamentalist appeal. New Delhi must be hoping that Imran can cobble up a majority, without needing help from the radical religious right.

There are perhaps few more contrasting personalities around in world politics than India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister-designate Imran Khan. One, as austere as you can get, the other, flamboyant and much-married. One is with a nondescript education and poor English-speaking skills, the other suave and Oxford University-educated, who speaks like an English nobleman. Yet, strangely, they both have some essentials in common. Imran’s vision of an “Islamic Welfare State” is remarkably similar to Modi’s plans to reduce poverty levels through a variety of schemes that bring benefits directly to the poor and needy. In that sense, they are both idealists. Secondly, though both men come from entirely different social backgrounds, Modi being essentially lower middle-class, and Imran from an affluent upper-class, they are united in their fight against corruption and the predatory political elite. A third commonality needs to be added: The battle against terrorism, an evil that confronts both nations. If these common traits in both men can be built on, there may be hope for closer Indo-Pakistan relations.

Imran’s vision of an “Islamic Welfare State” is remarkably similar to Modi’s plans to reduce poverty levels through a variety of schemes that bring benefits directly to the poor and needy. In that sense, they are both idealists