The name is ‘Khan’: Good, the bad and the ugly 

A little-known fact about Imran Khan, the likely next Prime Minister of Pakistan, is that he is the direct descendant of Sufi warrior-poet Pir Roshan, who wrote the oldest known book in the Pashto language and who was killed waging war against Emperor Akbar and whose followers continued to resist the Moghuls for another hundred years.

That is the stock Imran Khan comes from. The question is whether he has the strength of character, valour and wisdom of his formidable forefathers. The future of Pakistan, at least in the near term, depends on it. If indeed his country is to shake off the tag of a ‘failing State’ and make a historic transition towards viability, stability and advancement, his virtues must far outweigh his flaws.

Undeniably, Kaptaan Imran Khan has a mix of both the good and the bad ingrained in his nature and psyche – which is only to be expected in a complex personality with a proven track record of heroic achievements and dishonourable deeds.

At one level, the image that he carries with him is that of an international playboy, a thrice-married Casanova and an unlikely intruder into the murky world of politics. Or, as he himself said in his post-election address on Thursday, the Indian media describes him as a “Bollywood villain”.

Apart from his credentials as a sportsman, not many may be aware that he graduated from Oxford with Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Another dimension of his diverse personality, which is well known mostly because he never stops talking about it, is his success in setting up a world class cancer hospital in memory of his mother and a university where half the students are from impoverished sections of society.

On the debit side, the nadir of his personal and private life was the scandal surrounding his relationship with Sita White. For all his reputed courage in facing up to the fastest bowlers of his cricket playing days, Imran Khan did not display the moral fibre to acknowledge that he had a daughter born out of wedlock. He ducked responsibility. It took a court case and a DNA test to coerce him to finally admit parentage.

The episode will forever be a blot on his reputation and dent his claims to being an upright and trustworthy human being.

Yet, there is another side to his other ill-fated liaisons - perhaps not quite a positive side, but a point to ponder over when one is talking about a handsome six-foot Pathan’s relationships with women.

His decade-long marriage to Jemima Goldsmith was no casual fling – she belongs to one of the wealthiest aristocratic families in England and is a film producer and journalist (editor of New Statesman and Vanity Fair) in her own right.

However, winning hearts on the playing field and in personal life have nothing to do with running a country. Especially when it comes to becoming the leader of a nation which many have written off as a ‘Failed State’.

That is the challenge before Imran Khan, Prime Minister designate. Nobody knows the enormity of the task before him as well as he does -he made that clear during his election speeches.

The only advantage he starts with is that he is not a conventional political animal – he made that clear too. He sought to project himself as an idealist with unique ideas to shun extravagance and sleaze, alleviate poverty and disease, and to focus on gainful trade and commerce with other countries, including India. He spoke the language of peace and

friendship. He struck the right tone and he said all the things that new rulers say at the beginning of their tenure.

So what chance does a former cricketer have to make a difference? None whatsoever. Except for the fact that this time the times are different. Both China and the United States would want him succeed – to tell the truth, Imran Khan would not have come so close to becoming the Prime Minister without the overt and covert blessings of Beijing and Washington.

There is, however, another factor in his favour. His intrinsic qualities of head and heart, his idealism, his determination and his steely resolve - these are qualities that will be put to the test in the months and years ahead. The long-suffering people of Pakistan will be hoping he does not prove to be yet another experiment that failed.