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Imran Khan: Next man in? - People & Power - Al Jazeera English
Once an international cricket star, Pakistan's Imran Khan is now playing for a greater prize - to be his country's next prime minister. But can he upset the political status quo?
People & Power has hit the campaign trail to find out.
'What a beautiful country'
It is late afternoon but still oppressively warm as Imran Khan shows People & Power around the grounds of his house. It sits atop a ridge near the village of Bani Gala, just a few miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, and has impressive views of the foothills of the Himalayas and the outskirts of the city.
As his dogs scamper around his heels, he is in a reflective mood - frowning as his attention is caught by some scruffy new buildings nearby. "Look, it's such a beautiful country, but we're doing everything to destroy it. Just look at that unplanned settlement, all unplanned ... which is why I went into politics."
If his remarks seem just a little too rehearsed, then perhaps it is understandable.
We are not the first journalists to visit him here and surely will not be the last and it cannot be easy to come up with fresh sounding justifications every time he is asked why he is trying to make a difference in his country. But what does seem genuine is his frustration with the political status quo in Pakistan and his resolve to do something about it.
"The country is in the grip of a political mafia. Basically there were two parties and they were taking turns in using politics to make money. So I came to the conclusion 16 years ago, either we fight for our country or we watch it go down."
On the margins
The turnout at a PTI rally in Lahore in October 2011 stunned Pakistan's political classes [EPA]
Sixteen years ago Imran Khan was best known for his prowess on the cricket field, a legendary all-rounder who had come out of retirement at the age of 39 to lead Pakistan to its first and only victory in the sport's 1992 World Cup.
But then after four years devoted to charity and social work (somewhat offset by an international reputation as a playboy and a nine-year marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, the daughter of the late British billionaire James Goldsmith), he grew increasingly disgusted by the suffocating bureaucracy and endemic corruption that he saw everywhere in Pakistan and decided to enter politics.
In 1996, he founded the Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Union for Justice or PTI) and was elected as its sole MP in the 2002 general election.
He spent the next five years on the margins of Pakistan's political life - a high-profile figure who nevertheless lacked the popular support to challenge the power base of the country's two largest parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
As the two parties' leaders, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, fought for power through years dominated by the ever-present threat of army intervention, Khan and his tiny party were often dismissed as politically irrelevant and unlikely ever to be in a position to influence events.
Wave of popular disaffection
But in the autumn of 2007 things began to change.
That October, Khan and 85 other MPs resigned from the country's parliament in protest at the presidential election, which General Pervez Musharraf was contesting without resigning as army chief.
Khan was briefly arrested in the emergency that followed and then re-emerged to become an increasingly vocal critic of the status quo.
