Imran of my childhood was popular for two reasons. As a lady killer and as a cricket star. We were too young (and I was too ugly) to copy him in the first adventure. But in the second, we tried as much as we could. In a bid to bowl like him, the ball missed the bat by miles and hit an old man in the foot. Enraged, he fired a full-mouthed Kashmiri slang the boom of which still echoes in my ears. Kormave Imran Khanass m#$2%. He didn’t abuse us, he abused whom we adored as a cricket god.
The man who led Pakistan as a team is set to lead Pakistan as a nation. Imran Khan’s charisma is unquestionable. Even those who hate him as a rival, love him for his appeal and his inexhaustible perseverance of a dream-chaser. The only disgusting part of his political career was the cheapness he showed against Nawaz Sharif. The standards of morality he applied on Sharif family, if applied the world over, will get half the heads of the states behind the bars. There he proved a typical mud-slinger, a street boy who threw all decency to the winds and launched a malicious campaign against a democratically elected prime minister. Now that he has been voted to power, what if his rivals shoot him above the hip the same way. In the beginning, things will be smooth. His love affair with the army may continue, but tables can turn and Imran may get the bouncer of his own make. Today he urges all to honour the verdict of the people which he yesterday himself violated. If he is serious about not following the policy of political victimisation (as he said he is), the least he could do is to soften on the Nawaz front. This softening may not mean withdrawing the case against Nawaz, or giving up his fight against corruption. But it will mean withdrawing the element of vengeance from it. Pakistan has earned a notoriety of trying, imprisoning and hanging their democratically elected heads. That has tribalised the country. If he departs from the practice, that will be a real reverse swing which will win him his lost fans too. That will salvage something from a wrecked ship of democracy in Pakistan.
My big bitch against this big star of my childhood is that he stooped unimaginably low while slandering Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz may have his set of vices to pay for, but Imran lost his grace in the process. Except for that, he stays as someone we look up to. In his charisma, confidence, character and dash, Imran echoes Jinnah. We have been either disgraced by jokers or maligned by terrorists. We don’t need show-boys too. We need thinking heads on graceful shoulders. Clean-handed, clean-slated doers who believe in action. We need those who talk and the world listens, not those who talk and the world laughs. Will this prince charming restore us the pride we have lost in the absence of a charismatic leadership. Let’s hope.
Tailpiece:
When Imran was abusing Nawaz on the roads of Pakistan, I wanted to recall the old man of my childhood and ask him to abuse Imran again.