Cricket, Corruption & Imran Khan the Saviour

[caylu]

Lately Imran Khan has been gaining lot of popularity in politics.

The people in Pakistan are getting tired of the current crop of the politics and they want a change. Simultaneously imran khan brought this slogan of change. Also the charismatic personality of imran khan has managed to bring out from homes those educated voter who never believed in the power of vote. Also he has won over the new generation of voter who will be taking part in the next election. So i do see Imran khan taking some reasonable number of seats in the next election. My definition of Reasonable is that the number which wont make him ashamed of his effort but at the same time will not make him a leading stake holder in the parliament.

But when i take a deep breadth and think over his personality and wander whether he will be able to deliver, then i have to say that i m not very confident.

If i have to describe his personality then i have to say that he is honest but not dedicated, he has a vision but he is not committed to his vision, he knows the destination but he is not brave enough.

Let me give some arguments for my analysis of his personality.
First of all he picked the easiest of the opponent to attack, Sharif Brothers. They are corrupt like all others but neither they have a violent wing like MQM, nor they have the cunningness of Zardari. Its like picking South Africa as your main opponent instead of India or Australia. thats why i think he is not brave enough.

Secondly he still is more or less the only sole spokesman of his party, i wander if his party really is democratic.?? i mean lets take a mins and think over it. Why we dont hear from other people in his party? do they really believe in his point of view.??

Thirdly and most importantly i feel he lack committment.. Like he started a campaign against Altaf Hussain and half way we have no clue whether he is still defending his petition or he has withdrawn it?? Lately he has talked quite in favor of MQM.. so i really wander what has happened behind the curtain. Has MQM really stopped terrorism?? or has Imran khan has got a different order. Honest i wont be surprised if he withdraw his petition in coming months. Thats why i said he lack commitment. Although i dont want to question his honesty but if one day he withdraw his petition i will question his honesty too.

Lastly, lately he has got some old faces in his camp like Mian Azhar and some PML(N) town level leaders. So when he is asking Sharif Brother to declare his assets then atleast he should make Mian Azhar assets public and ask the opposition that if they find any hiding of the facts then they should question his committment. Its very easy to throw eggs on others but i dont see his own committment to his own rules. Come on, show us that your party will be different. Its not about only YOU, its about Tehrik-e-Insaaf. which is announcing that its bringing a change.

Lately there have been quite a few minor events which passed before my eyes like they said that Shehbaz Sharif wrongfully closed their Shaukat Khanum Laboratory and when they were asked to go to the courts they didnt go. or Pervez Musharraf said that he has given a puppy as a gift to him and he didnt come out and say that No its a lie and i will go in court not only to prove him wrong but to make him pay for tarnishing my image and so on..

Looking on all these small n big things i have to say that people want a change and he has got charisma and momentum to get elected but he has not got what it takes to be a true leader.

Why Imran Khan will win in election but will fail to deliver? « Caylu's Blog

views expressed are strictly mine and can change over time depending upon how he performs in future...

 

[kas786]

Well written. He raised some good points.

Hey what's that? I think I hear a stampede coming our way.

 

[kas786]

I think PML-N is being cornered and their odds of winning the elections are being slashed. It's all Zardari's game and IK is being used as a pawn. I mean come on, burning their offices right after Shahbaz's speech?

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Bizarre as it may sound, the Nawaz League was positioning itself as the challenger of the status quo, St George to Zardari’s dragon, in headier moments even the word revolution playing on its lips. But on the way something happened to spoil this charming narrative. After the 2008 elections the party should have made up its mind which side to be on, but it sought to have the best of both worlds, running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, breathing fire and holy defiance against the PPP at the centre, even as it found itself unable to resist the allure of power in Punjab. There being no such thing as a free lunch, it is now paying the price of this self-inflicted schizophrenia.

So the major parties better beware. Dangerous winds have started blowing across the Punjab landscape (Imran having his work cut out in the other provinces). These winds can be felt most strongly in the triangle which for over two decades has been the N-League’s heartland: Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Lahore. But it is only a matter of time before they turn north, to the Pothohar Plateau and the districts straddling the mighty Indus.

We must not forget the bleakness of the distance traversed. For a decade and a half Imran was out of sync with the times, bawling out a different tune while Pakistani politics was stretched along a different path. Now the constellations have shifted. What was once the call of the wild is now the call of the times, no cry louder or more insistent in Pakistan today than the call for change. The only man fitting the bill as instrument of change is Imran Khan, all the other knights of the political arena exhausted figures, symbols of the discredited past and therefore part of the problem the nation is confronted with.

A few excerpts from the article ''Cynicism washed away'' by Ayaz Amir in thenews.com

 

[JAT BALWAN]

Imran Khan from PDF will be also a cool candidate if you want one.....

 

[CorporateAffairs]

Only prime ministers change, "POWER" is always with

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Nice discussion.Thing is, People are fed up with Family politics and want change. IN the current scenario People Believes, Imran khan is better choice
if not Perfect.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Pakistan: cricket, corruption and Imran Khan the saviour​

Could the fate of a nation in turmoil rest with one man?​

By Peter Oborne7:30AM GMT 05 Nov 201117 Comments

Until now, Imran Khan has been viewed in Britain in a rather narrow way – former husband of the heiress Jemima Khan, and a brilliant sportsman who led his country to a series of famous victories on the cricket field.

But, after witnessing his astounding political rally in a park here in Lahore last weekend, I would argue that the way we see Imran Khan is in need of urgent reassessment. He must now be considered as a potential prime minister – and perhaps even one day president – of this deeply troubled country.

On Sunday, I travelled by rickshaw to witness him launch his campaign ahead of the national elections, which are expected in 18 months. The atmosphere was electric with anticipation as I stood for hours in the middle of a worshipping crowd, who had been waiting all day in the unremitting heat to hear Pakistan’s former cricket captain.

The people around me – many of them young, and a large number, most unusually for Pakistan, women – told me they saw Khan as a saviour. They believe that only he can bring to an end the cynicism and corruption that has brought their country to its knees over the past two decades.
They lapped up his message that their country has been betrayed by a greedy, western-backed political class, who have squandered Pakistan’s natural resources and hidden their eye-watering profits in offshore bank accounts.

Muzammil Saeed, a man in his twenties who works in the computer industry, told me: “Imran is not a common man. But he says what the common man thinks.” One of his companions added: “Imran is the hope for Pakistan.”

But only three days after Khan’s command performance in Lahore, a very different type of Pakistani sporting hero was putting on another kind of display – this time in Southwark Crown Court.

Salman Butt, like Khan, is a former national cricket captain. But there the resemblance ends. While Khan’s speech offered the possibility of moral redemption, the wretched Butt and two fellow cricketers were found guilty of corruptly accepting payments, and conspiracy to cheat.

I was in Lahore, home town to both Butt and Khan, when the jury announced its verdict. It is impossible to exaggerate the horror with which it was greeted.

Turning on the television, I saw a BBC World Service report saying the jury’s decision was met with “anger” in Pakistan, hinting that the country was outraged that a British court could have found their heroes guilty. This inference was profoundly wrong. Shame and despair were the overwhelming emotions displayed in Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Butt, Salman’s father, was so shattered that he has postponed the marriage of his 22-year-old daughter. He had said he was ready to be “hanged publicly” if the allegations were found to be true.

Mr Justice Cooke, who handed out a 30-month sentence to Butt, declared, before sentencing the three cricketers, that “it is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious”.

But the judge hugely understated the nature of their crime and betrayal. The depth of Pakistan’s anguish cannot be grasped without an understanding that the country’s national passion is cricket, consuming all else before it. In a deeply divided land, the cricket team is, alongside the army, the only real expression of unity. Cricket is played by youngsters on every street, and each one dreams of playing for the national team. The chairman of the Pakistan cricket board is viewed as one of the three most important men in the country, along with the president and head of the army.

Over the past week I have spoken, as part of my research into a history of Pakistan cricket, to many of the country’s most famous cricketers. Everywhere I encountered despondency. The one exception was Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal, who told Lahore’s Express Tribune that he had never seen Butt do anything wrong. But Akmal (one of the players whom, according to the prosecution, agent Mazhar Majeed boasted he had under his control) was the lone voice.

That magical leg spinner Abdul Qadir, the cleric’s son who plundered so many England wickets under the captaincy of Imran Khan in the 1980s, told me that “the heart and mind of Pakistani cricket is not clear”, adding that “my father had a firm belief that after death there would be a judgment, so he told me never to do anything deliberately that was wrong”.

I spoke to Qadir before the verdict was known, but he told me that any other player who had consorted for the guilty cricketers should be heavily punished. Lahore’s Daily Times echoed this sentiment, calling on Thursday for a “zero tolerance approach towards corruption” and a “complete uprooting of all illicit and dishonest betting activities”.

In the library of the Pakistan Cricket Board in the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, I came across one of the country’s cricketing legends, Imtiaz Ahmed, a hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman who played in Pakistan’s first Test match against India in 1952. He recalled that he was paid 10 rupees (about £1) a day, for representing his country. He expressed bewilderment that today’s players, who are paid so well in comparison, should take extra money from bookmakers.

In Karachi, I had lunch with another great figure from the early days of Pakistan cricket, the radio commentator Jamsheed Marker, who later entered the diplomatic service and became his country’s ambassador to the United Nations. He recalled how Hafeez Kardar, Pakistan’s first-ever cricket captain, was never paid any money. “He was driven by patriotism, loyalty and duty – there was a lot of it about in the early days.”

It seems to me that it is this tradition of integrity and public service which Imran Khan and his political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (the Movement for Justice) is trying to resurrect – and, as seen in last Sunday’s rally, it has substantial appeal. Everywhere I went in Pakistan, I sensed that people still feel a huge sense of pride in their country, a pride that almost more than anything else, expresses itself through the cricket team. This is the reason why Butt and his fellow cricketers did not simply commit a criminal offence – they were guilty of an act of unspeakable treachery. They enriched themselves at the expense of their public duty to their country. It is this which makes their crime comparable to the daily betrayals of Pakistan’s politicians, who notoriously fill their private pockets with public funds, and hardly ever get caught or punished. Little wonder then, that Imran Khan has identified a new constituency which has been increasingly disenchanted from mainstream Pakistani politics over the past few decades – the young, idealistic and public-spirited.

In Pakistan, it is not difficult to detect echoes of the Arab spring which convulsed North Africa six months ago. As with the Arab Spring, Khan’s message is just as uncomfortable for Britain and America as it is for bloated local politicians. He called for the West to pull out of Afghanistan and bring to an end the illegal drone attacks, which have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Pakistanis.

Ever since it achieved independence from Britain in 1947, cricket came to define what Pakistan stands for as a country. In the early days, that national team was an expression of the patriotism and selflessness of the Pakistan post-war creators. More recently, the ossified arrogance of an entrenched political elite has brought Pakistani cricket to its knees.

But the horrified reaction to last week’s verdict, allied to Khan’s potent message of national redemption, shows that the idealism that led to the formation of Pakistan more than 60 years ago has not been lost. Far from being a disaster, this week’s events in Southwark Crown Court could be seen as a turning point in the history of Pakistan’s magnificent national game – and in the nation itself.
Pakistan: cricket, corruption and Imran Khan the saviour - Telegraph

 

[StandForInsaf]

Nice discussion.Thing is, People are fed up with Family politics and want change. IN the current scenario People Believes, Imran khan is better choice
if not Perfect.

Well said , we want to see if he can do what he talks about.

 

[niazifighter]

His name is Khan, Imran Khan

Sana Bucha
Sunday, November 06, 2011



With the Pakistani media coverage a cacophonous standoff, and terms like neutrality vanishing from the airwaves, it seems like whatever opinion this journalist may embrace it’s bound to be disapproved of.

When my programmes echoed support for the Swat operation I was allegedly towing the establishment’s line. When I was critical of General Musharraf, it was Nawaz Sharif’s party that I was supporting. Raising questions on the conduct of our armed forces gained me the membership of the CIA-sponsored journalists’ club. Interestingly however when I criticise the PPP government, I am back on the generals’ payroll and also the Sharif’s! Monogamous, I’m so not. Taking sides against the Muttahida doesn’t necessarily slot me as a ‘paid’ journalist but the fear factor is deterrent enough.

Currently, it’s the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s president one is not allowed to assess critically. Those who maintain their journalistic responsibility to present both sides of a story are accused of being unpatriotic and funded by the opposition. The lines in Pakistani politics are very clearly drawn – one wonders where exactly Pakistan’s most famous son is positioned on this spectrum.

Electoral campaigns have never been this much fun. Shahbaz sang Jalib with such fervour that he brought tears to his own eyes. Altaf Hussain showed his softer side by singing the same Jalib verse albeit changing the words to reflect his new alliances. Khan chose to let others sing for him, inviting revolutionary bards like Shehzad Roy, Strings and the one-hit wonder, Shahzaman. Carefully choreographed, Khan’s rally was a success, proving that politics can be sexy.

For many, Khan is almost like a mystery wrapped in an enigma. But there are even more paradoxes in the attitude of the ruling government towards him. Emerging as an opposition party, it would seem plausible – given the political dynamics of Pakistan – for the government and its coalition partners to make some noise against Khan and his party. Punjab’s governor Sardar Latif Khosa granted the PTI the role of the “real” opposition, however neither he nor his party stand opposed to it. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has obviously forgotten Khan’s jarring remarks against it at Karachi airport when he was not allowed to enter the city. In return, Khan has also conveniently forgotten the cases he had registered against Altaf Hussain in London.

Aside from entertainment, what did we, the public, get out of the PTI’s recent show of strength? Khan began by referring to the letter allegedly written by President Zardari to Admiral Mullen, in which he asked for protection from his army. Khan used the term “Apni army” with such incredulity that one wondered whether he had also been sharing space with Qaddafi in that pipe. So, for the sake of putting history right: Zulkiqar Ali Bhutto went to the gallows because his “own” army betrayed him. Years later, Benazir Bhutto was also shown the door by the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad – an alternate force formed by the ISI. Benazir Bhutto’s departure gave way to Nawaz Sharif – a man positioned by the military to create political balance in Pakistan (read: military’s preference). The same Nawaz Sharif was thrown off balance by his own army in 1999. For a civilian leader, it’s only your own army until the knife is in your back Mr Khan.

Pakistan’s most pressing issue is a lack of civil continuity and the space to work without the establishment dictating terms. That is what civil governments push for and that is when our own army intercedes. I would have liked to hear you mention that in your speech Mr Khan – as columnist Nadeem Paracha pointed out – there were more than just ‘facebook crowds’ attending.

Khan’s long deliberation over the war on terror is a case study in schizophrenia. Imran Khan wants to talk peace with extremists who have forcibly occupied a large area of Pakistani land to dictate their agenda. Khan also seeks to bring terrorists into the mainstream – if it was up to him, those who have killed more than 40,000 innocent people may be welcomed in parliament!

He aims to secure order by stopping drone attacks which he believes fuel militants’ revenge. If local terrorism is drone-driven, where were the drones in Swat? If there was a strike, the media clearly didn’t cover it. Pakistan’s vast coal reserves lie buried underground, their extraction halted as the Chinese have fled amid security fears. Law and order, however, is the least of Imran’s worries.

Neither a realist nor an idealist, Imran Khan has a split personality when it comes to foreign policy. He struck a nerve with many people when he spoke of his suggested solution for Kashmir: Khan will ask the Indian army to withdraw from Kashmir. Will he induce the Indian army to withdraw through diplomacy or will alternate pressure come into play?

India will obviously want a quid pro quo deal. And dare I ask, how will Khan make Pakistan live up to their side of the commitment. Khan will make sure that he halts army action in Balochistan. I wonder if he’s already posed the idea to General Pasha and/or General Kayani in one of their alleged secret meetings. If they have agreed then this is breaking news. If they haven’t, this news will be heartbreaking for those who took his words seriously.

Khan also promised to broaden the tax base when he comes into power. This, from the same man who opposed the value added tax? Khan declared Nawaz Sharif unfit to fight dengue. Sure, the Sharifs have failed in combating dengue but dare I ask – does Khan recall which single lab refused to lower its rates to 90 rupees to conduct dengue testing?

Reforming the notoriously corrupt police force is also on Khan’s agenda. He suggests popular votes to appoint SHOs so people can have no complaints. Again, Khan astounds. If elected leaders have public support and elicit no complaints, how is Khan able to rally such support from a nation “sick” of corrupt leadership?

Khan’s prescription for our ailing corruption was also just what the doctor ordered: declare all foreign assets or brace yourself for a civil disobedience movement. This when the country has a free judiciary and a law in place to tackle misappropriations and unaccountability. Why take to the streets when you can go to court?

Khan, however did not utter a single word regarding accountability within the military. How about asking for a declaration of the assets they have acquired during their tenure, or auditing the trillions that we have pumped into the armed forces in the last few decades?

Khan’s solo flight in ‘97 took off with his belief that he would secure himself the post of prime minister. That kept him engaged until General Musharraf’s coup d’etat. Khan supported the general till his referendum and later boycotted the 2008 elections. Khan’s pendulum-like swinging from one position to the other speaks volumes of his naivety and lack of understanding of Pakistan’s politics.

Khan thinks he can conquer it all with faith. However, faith alone cannot achieve the desired objectives. Even a World Cup win required more than Imran Khan’s inspirational captaincy like Wasim Akram’s fast bowling, the consistent batting of Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq’s hard hits. Will men like Hamid Khan, Mian Azhar and Mehmood ur Rasheed help bring the cup home?

 

[Areesh]

His name is Khan, Imran Khan

Sana Bucha
Sunday, November 06, 2011

Sana Bucha!!! I hope she has written this article herself and it isn't like before plagiarized.

 

[Pakistanisage]

All these naysayers have nothing to offer Pakistan except disilluusionment and hopelessness. We should discard these negative people and move ahead with positive message. Pakistan should bring the old gaurd down and prosecute them for corruption. Both Asif Zardari and Nawaz Shareef should account for their wealth. Unaccounted wealth should be confiscated from any worldwide accounts.

Let Imran Khan take over with a clear understanding that if goes corrupt, the Pakistani people will take him to task.

 

[Vassnti]

Let Imran Khan take over with a clear understanding that if goes corrupt, the Pakistani people will take him to task.

Even with the best of intentions changing the way things have been for years is a huge task, I Khan's campaign reminds me of another politician that ran on the idea of a new begining, you can judge for your self his sucess.

 

[fd24]

I regard Imran Khan as our countries next leader. If given a chance we will become one. It is inevitable and we simply must give him the oppertunity to put his case forward and show us he really is an allrounder!

 

[Kompromat]

Imran Khan predicts 'a revolution' in Pakistani politics

Former national cricket captain vows to fight corruption and negotiate with the Taliban in address to 100,000 at Lahore rally

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 November 2011 20.40 GMT
Article histo

At the height of his cricket glory days, Imran Khan would visualise winning – standing on the podium, cup held aloft – and propelling Pakistan to victory. Last weekend, standing before a sea of supporters in Lahore, he had a similar epiphany about his political career.

"As I stood there, watching them, I knew the moment had come," Khan, who is the leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insafr party, said. "Now nothing can stop us. This is a revolution, a tsunami. We will not just win the next elections – we will sweep them."

Whether the former cricket captain can translate rhetoric into reality is hotly debated. Yet few doubt that last weekend's rally sent shockwaves across Pakistan's moribund political system.

Over 100,000 people crammed into a historic Lahore park. Many were middle-class Pakistanis – young, urban, educated – drawn by Khan's rhetoric and their anger at conventional politics.

"This is the emergence of a new force. The cry for change is resonating across Pakistan," said Ayaz Amir, a parliamentarian from rival Nawaz Sharif's party, who was there. "Young, old, professionals, women – I've never seen such people at a public meeting in Pakistan before."

The sight, Amir added, had "scared the living daylights" out of his own party.

But others are sceptical that Khan represents real change. "We've heard this rhetoric many times before," said Badar Alam, editor of Herald magazine. "I'm cautious about it. I don't know what agenda he is really promoting."

Khan is visibly buoyant. For years he has campaigned on a platform of what some call "anti-politics" – virulent criticism of the graft and patronage that infect Pakistani politics. Now, he says, he has been proved right.

Sitting on the veranda of his hilltop farmhouse outside Islamabad, he pointed across the city at the presidential palace. "[President Asif Ali] Zardari is a crook, nothing more," he said. "We've broken all records in corruption."

His plan for the economy is to "inspire" Pakistanis to pay tax – currently only 2% do so. "We just need to have some austerity and collect taxes. If we do that, we can balance our budgets," he said.

In power, Khan said, he would cut off American aid. "I want to be a friend of the Americans, not their lackey. Aid is a curse for a poor country; it stops you making the required reforms and props up crooks."

But perhaps most alarmingly for Pakistan's western allies – and some Pakistanis – Khan says he would negotiate with instead of fighting the Taliban militants who have been bombing Pakistani cities.

"Anyone who thinks this country will be taken over by Taliban are fools. There's no concept of a theocracy anywhere in the Muslim world for the past 1,400 years. If I came to power, I could end this conflict in 90 days – guaranteed."

Khan's choice of allies, many of them veterans of previous political dispensations, has also been controversial. Khan's foreign policy adviser, Shireen Mazari, is famously hostile to India; when editing a national newspaper she ran stories that branded British, Australian and American journalists as "CIA agents".

"I don't agree with her on everything. We give her hell on certain views," he says.

Yet Khan is defiantly proud that his newfound success is vindication against what he calls the "liberal, westernised elite" – wealthy, English-speaking Pakistanis who, he claims, are out of touch with the realities of their own country. "I call them coconuts: brown on the outside, white on the inside, looking at Pakistan through a westernised lens," he says.

His political views are firmly rooted in a particular view of Islam. He does not favour changes to the notorious blasphemy law – a virulent debate that led to the assassination of his friend Salmaan Taseer last January. "The time is not right. There would be bloodshed. We need to worry about other things," he says.

And he is careful to direct his barbs away from the powerful military, which controls relations with India, the US and the fight against the Taliban. Although Khan enthusiastically criticises [former president Pervez] Musharraf, who is now in exile, he has little criticism of the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani.

"I have been critical of the generals in the past. I told them they are selling our blood for dollars," he says. "But this is not martial rule. It's up to our corrupt government to take responsibility." If he was in power and the army interfered, he says, he would resign. "We would go back to the people."

Khan enjoys a reputation for probity, having set up a cancer hospital in honour of his mother, who died of the disease. He also has a flash of glamour. A famous Pakistani pop band, Strings, opened last week's rally; supporters include his former wife, Jemima Khan, who attended a recent press conference in Islamabad to protest at CIA-led drone strikes in the tribal belt.

For some Pakistanis, Khan simply represents a protest against a moribund political system. "He's a bit of an idiot," said an architect from Lahore. "But he's better than the rest. I would vote for him."

To achieve his dream of becoming prime minister, Khan needs to convert his newfound popularity into seats in parliament (he has none, having boycotted the 2008 poll). To do so, he may have to recruit the same "corrupt" politicians to achieve a majority. "This is his most deadly flaw," says Herald editor Alam.

And time is short. Pakistan's next election is set for February 2013 at the latest, although a snap election is a possibility.

His party remains weak, he has few candidates and, crucially, many of his supporters have never voted before. Whether they will now, says Alam, is "perhaps the biggest unknown in Pakistani politics today."

Background

Although a self-styled "revolutionary", Imran Khan's politics are far from the fevered streets of the Arab Spring. The difference is democracy: whereas across the Muslim world, dissidents are fighting for the right to vote, Pakistanis already have it. But many dislike the leaders those elections have thrown up, hence the current upheaval.

President Asif Ali Zardari is an accidental leader, propelled into the job after his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December 2007. (Police indicted seven people for her killing last month, including two policemen, but the details remain murky.) Zardari has struggled to shake off the "Mr 10%" moniker – a reference to alleged corruption – while deteriorating economic and security conditions have plunged his poll ratings into the low teens.

But the main opposition challenger, Nawaz Sharif, has failed to capitalize on this misfortune. His N-league party, which controls the Punjab government, has grown unpopular for failing to contain an outbreak of dengue fever in recent months. Sharif is also estranged from the powerful military, which launched him into politics in the 1980s, due to his long-standing rivalry with Pervez Musharraf, the general who ousted Sharif from power in 1999.

The turmoil has emboldened challengers. One is Musharraf, who currently lives in exile in London, and has vowed to return to Pakistan next March. But the general faces numerous obstacles, including court prosecutions, security threats and opposition from the army leadership. The other is Khan, until recently viewed as a fringe player in national politics, seen most often on chatshows and protests against drone strikes.

All eyes are now fixed on senate elections next March, which should see Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party take control of the upper house – and, possibly, pave the way for a second term as president for Zardari.


Imran Khan predicts 'a revolution' in Pakistani politics | World news | The Guardian