[Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state and a longtime security ally of the United States, has a history of elected leaders being overthrown by the military or pushed out by other institutions such as the courts. Until 2008, no elected head of state had finished a full term. Wednesday’s election has been seen as a critical test of the democratic institutions in a country with a strong, influential military.]
By Pamela Constable
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — Imran Khan, a
onetime international cricket star and tabloid playboy who reinvented himself
as a crusading anti-establishment politician, declared victory Thursday for his
party in parliamentary elections, even as his rivals charged that the polls had
been rigged and the official results remained unclear.
In a statesmanlike address, Khan set out a
grand vision for a new government that would end corruption in high places,
protect the weak and ensure equal rights for all. But the taint of a
questionable victory, and the contentious aftermath of an election that toppled
the ruling party, seemed more likely to usher in a period of political turmoil
than a smooth transition.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state and a
longtime security ally of the United States, has a history of elected leaders
being overthrown by the military or pushed out by other institutions such as
the courts. Until 2008, no elected head of state had finished a full term.
Wednesday’s election has been seen as a critical test of the democratic
institutions in a country with a strong, influential military.
Although security officials vowed to remain
neutral, the military was accused of interfering in the election on Khan’s
behalf, including reports that some promising candidates from the ruling
Pakistan Muslim League-N were covertly induced to leave the party. On election
day, opponents from several major parties alleged fraud at the polls.
Khan has often publicly praised the military
but has denied any collusion. Some critics, especially the family of former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif, have called the election a “soft coup.” Even if
unproven, the association could harm Khan’s relations with other parties as he
tries to form a coalition government or rule on his own.
In his speech Thursday, Khan tried to placate
the election critics, offering to help probe any wrongdoing at the polls.
“I feel this election has been the fairest in
Pakistan’s history,” he said, “and still if any party has any doubt, we will
open up the result of those constituencies for investigation.”
Khan also briefly described his foreign
policy plans, saying he wanted to have “mutually beneficial” relations with the
United States. In the past, he has strongly condemned the U.S. deployment of
drones to kill suspected Taliban extremists in the border areas of Pakistan
Both Khan’s acolytes and his adversaries
acknowledged that his sudden ascent as the dominant force in Pakistani politics
could potentially bring enormous change to a country where power has long
resided in a feudal elite and its military allies.
Yet some analysts pointed out that Khan’s
ambitious agenda — massive job creation, economic reforms — could easily become
sidetracked by such intractable problems as high illiteracy and birthrates,
violent religious extremism, a fast-falling currency and dangerous shortages of
water and power in the impoverished Muslim-majority nation of nearly 208
million.
“Although this is a dream that has devoured
him for two decades, he may well find it a poisoned chalice,” columnist Irfan
Husain wrote in Dawn newspaper.
Above all, Khan seems to be counting on his
personal charisma and passion — qualities that once wowed cricket fans and made
him a magnet for women, then drove him to succeed in politics and energized his
winning campaign — to carry over into the messy business of governing.
Although still Mick Jagger-lean and craggily
handsome in his mid-60s, Khan bears little resemblance to the sports celebrity
who burned up the London tabloids in the 1990s with his hard-partying exploits
and storybook marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, a beautiful British socialite.
(Divorced with two children, the two are still close, and she tweeted him
congratulations on his election win.)
These days, he has been cultivating his image
as a pious Muslim, often wearing a traditional tunic and pajamas, fingering
prayer beads and huddling with religious party leaders. In February, as the
campaign was getting underway, he married a woman named Bushra Maneka, whom he
described as his “spiritual adviser,” then published photos of their nuptial
ceremony with her face and body fully hidden beneath scarves.
Soon after that, though, Reham Khan, another
woman Khan had married briefly in 2015 and divorced, was reported to be writing
a tell-all book about his scandalous personal behavior. She told the Times
newspaper that the book was not ready to be published but that issues such as
“sexual harassment, sexual perversion, sexual favors” are “in the public
interest” when they are “connected to someone’s ability to govern.”
For two decades, Khan has waged a one-man
crusade against the Pakistani establishment. He started out giving
anti-corruption speeches on sidewalks, then began staging mass rallies that
were more like festivals. He ran for Parliament in 2013, winning 13 percent of
the vote and building an enthusiastic young following. He challenged then-Prime
Minister Sharif in court, accusing him of hiding wealth abroad, in a case that
led Sharif to be barred from political office and sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
This year, Khan again challenged the Sharif
dynasty at the polls, running for an unprecedented five seats in Parliament
from districts across the country. He won them all, even defeating former prime
minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former top aide to Sharif, by a 2-to-1 margin.
He has played down his own considerable wealth and often draws attention to a
cancer hospital he built in Lahore, Pakistan, through his private charity.
In his victory speech from his sprawling home
above the capital, Khan spoke and acted like a self-confident leader, in full
command and ready to rule, with a detailed list of plans, policies and promises
to raise Pakistan’s struggling “masses” and end the corrupt ways of an
entrenched elite.
He pledged to create a government and an
“Islamic welfare state” that would fulfill the unrealized democratic dream of
Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and he vowed to set an example by
living “humbly” and eschewing the luxuries of political power. He laid out a
range of proposed reforms, including better public education and tax
collection.
Yet the election was not over, and the shocks
continued Thursday as more results were reported throughout the day, with
numerous veteran politicians losing seats they had held for years. People in
scattered communities were still mourning more than 225 victims of multiple
suicide bombings in the past month, several at campaign rallies and one on
election day.
And Khan, whose party needs to win 141 seats
to form its own government and guarantee he becomes prime minister, is more
likely going to have to navigate the complex waters of compromising and
dealmaking with his erstwhile election rivals — possibly even some of those
whom the spellbinding orator insulted as “donkeys” in an unguarded moment on
the campaign trail.
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