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A Compelling Argument for a New Approach to Pakistan, the Taliban, Fighting Al Qaeda, and Afghanistan from Renowned Cricket Star, Politician, and Passionate Pakistani Imran Khan

By SusanUnPC on February 28, 2009 at 6:20 PM in Pakistan

Preface: I do not have a “dog in this hunt.” I am simply concerned, deeply, about Pakistan — as are many of you. I am willing to listen to different voices. Imran Khan’s is one such voice, and it is the voice of a dedicated countryman who loves Pakistan as much as we love our United States.

I waited. Impatiently. I visited Fareed Zakaria’s site (CNN, Sundays, aired twice) repeatedly until his staff posted this video because I want to share this man’s deep-from-his-soul, love-of-country arguments for how the United States and its citizens must alter our attitudes and our tactics towards Pakistan and the entire region. Imran Khan begins by talking about the SWAT VALLEY. Khan FEARS that Obama will treat Pakistan the same way that Bush did, including the continuation of the drone attacks, which encourages radicalism and makes ALL Pakistanis’ lives more difficult.

Zakaria’s sole text: “Imran Khan, famous cricket player and Pakistani politician, gave his take on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Obama administration.” You’ll see that the video speaks fully and, below, I’ve posted more of Khan’s history.

Khan is a wealthy, society-connected, handsome man who could live a life of ease. He was until recently married to a British heiress [photo below of Imran on the day of his wedding to the beautiful and very wealthy socialite Jemimah Goldsmith, who converted to Islam].

Yet, he cares so deeply Pakistan’s people and fate that he risks his life to speak out. Not many great sports stars have being tossed in jail (WITHOUT ANY DUE PROCESS) in their biography:

At the rally, Khan was captured by students from the Jamaat-i-Islami political party …. they handed him over to the police, who charged him under the Anti-terrorism act for allegedly inciting people to pick up arms, calling for civil disobedience, and for spreading hatred. [he was] incarcerated in the Dera Ghazi Khan Jail. …

Khan let out the word through PTI members and his family that he had begun a hunger strike. …. Khan was one of the 3,000 political prisoners released from imprisonment on 21 November 2007.

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Imran Khan’s wikipedia biography (the summary version):

Imran Khan Niazi (Urdu: عمران خان نیازی) (born 25 November 1952) is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and has been a politician since the mid-1990s. Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a charity worker and cricket commentator.

Khan played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992 and served as its captain intermittently throughout 1982-1992. After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup, he was called back to join the team in 1988. At 40, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan’s first and only World Cup victory in 1992. He has a record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him one of six world cricketers to have achieved an ‘All-rounder’s Triple’ in Test matches.[1]

In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), a small and marginal political party, of which he is the only member ever elected to Parliament.[2] He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007.[3] Khan, through worldwide fundraising, helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali’s Namal College in 2008.

[...]

… Now a snippet from the longer biography about his personal and cricket life …

[...]

On 16 May 1995, Khan married English socialite Jemima Goldsmith, a convert to Islam, in a two-minute Islamic ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond register office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths’ house in Surrey.[11] The marriage, described as “tough” by Khan,[5] produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999).[12] As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced because it was “difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan”.[13]

Veteran journalist Khalid Hasan reported in 2008 that Khan, beside regularly dying his hair, has had a hair transplant.[14] Khan now resides in Bani Gala, Islamabad, where he built a farmhouse with the money he gained from selling his London flat. He grows fruit trees, wheat, and keeps cows, while also maintaining a cricket ground for his two sons, who visit during their holidays.[5] Khan is also reported to be in regular contact with Tyrian Jade Khan-White, his alleged daughter whom he has never publicly acknowledged.[15]

Cricket career

Khan made a lacklustre first-class cricket debut at the age of sixteen in Lahore. By the start of the 1970s, he was playing for his home teams of Lahore A (1969-70), Lahore B (1969-70), Lahore Greens (1970-71) and, eventually, Lahore (1970-71).[16] Khan was part of Oxford University’s Blues Cricket team during the 1973-75 seasons.[6] At Worcestershire, where he played county cricket from 1971 to 1976, he was regarded as only an average medium pace bowler. During this decade, other teams represented by Khan include Dawood Industries (1975-76) and Pakistan International Airlines (1975-76 to 1980-81). From 1983 to 1988, he played for Sussex.[1]

In 1971, Khan made his Test cricket debut against England at Birmingham. Three years later, he debuted in the One Day International (ODI) match, once again playing against England at Nottingham for the Prudential Trophy. After graduating from Oxford and finishing his tenure at Worcestershire, he returned to Pakistan in 1976 and secured a permanent place on his native national team starting from the 1976-77 season, during which they faced New Zealand and Australia.[16] Following the Australian series, he toured the West Indies, where he met Tony Greig, who signed him up for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket.[1].His credentials as one of the fastest bowlers of the world started to establish when he finished third at 139.7 km/h in a fast bowling contest at Perth in 1978, behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding, but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts.[1]. Khan also achieved a Test Cricket Bowling rating of 922 points against India on 30 January 1983. Highest at the time, the performance ranks third on ICC’s All Time Test Bowling Rating.[17].

Khan achieved the all-rounder’s triple (securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets) in 75 Tests, the second fastest record behind Ian Botham’s 72. He is also established as having the second highest all-time batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 of the batting order.[18] He played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 1992, against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan retired permanently from cricket six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 World Cup final against England at Melbourne, Australia.[19] He ended his career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. His highest score was 136 runs. As a bowler, he took 362 wickets in Test cricket, which made him the first Pakistani and world’s fourth bowler to do so.[1] In ODIs, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41. His highest score remains 102 not out. His best ODI bowling is documented at 6 wickets for 14 runs.

Captaincy

At the height of his career, in 1982, the thirty-year old Khan took over the captaincy of the Pakistani cricket team from Javed Miandad. Recalling his initial discomfort with this new role, he later said, “When I became the cricket captain, I couldn’t speak to the team directly I was so shy. I had to tell the manager, I said listen can you talk to the, this is what I want to convey to the team. I mean early team meetings I use to be so shy and embarrassed I couldn’t talk to the team.”[20] As a captain, Khan played 48 Test matches, out of which 14 were won by Pakistan, 8 lost and the rest of 26 were drawn. He also played 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57 and ending one in a tie.[1]

In the team’s second match under his leadership, Khan led them to their first Test win on English soil for 28 years at Lord’s.[21] Khan’s first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. He recorded the best Test bowling of his career while taking 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981-82.[1] He also topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in three Test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he put up a highly acknowledged performance in a home series against the formidable Indian team by taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the end of this series in 1982-83, Khan had taken 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over a period of one year as captain.[16] …. READ ALL.

Tricia Spiegel

Very interesting read. I, myself, have not heard much about this fellow (or perhaps more accurately have not been paying attention). It is always good to learn more about what is going on from more than one perspective, and this was useful to me.

Thank you Susan.
pm317

Susan, thanks for this post. We need to hear from as many Pakistanis as we can. Unfortunately anyone critical will be out on house arrest or jailed. I had linked a very good op-ed in my last post on this topic on Pakistan’s options and he was also saying the same thing — there is no military solution here. I am still not convinced that Pakistani army cannot do much in those places (if they wanted to) as Imran says they are. But I have heard news reports where the rank and file soldiers are refusing to fight these guys on the ground in the tribal areas.
pm317

BTW, Imran Khan was a star and had a huge fan base in India because of his cricket.
http://theheraclitanfire.blogspot.com/ Craig Della Penna

OK, the problem here is that Imran Khan is a cricket star in Pakistan – kinda like a rockstar here in the US. Up till now he has had precious little credibility in Pakistani politics. Nawaz Sharif is the representative of the religious faction and Benazir Bhutto was the hugely popular leader of the organized opposition to Musharref (until Hillary killed her of course). Asif Ali Zardari (Benazir’s widower) has been known previously only for his propensity for corruption – perhaps he has turned over a new leaf, I hope so.
The point is that Imran Khan can say anything he chooses but it’s not at all clear that anyone is listening.
http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

Everything Khan said makes sense. So, is Zakaria ever going to criticize ‘The One’ he supported so strongly?

I don’t think Obama will change the approach. Shoulda been Hillary.
noname

Khan was a “pace” bowler, bit of exhilarating and manly stuff, he defeated India with a confidence using his battery of “pace” bowlers. Those were the days when Pakisthan had better international support, better roads, asides the cricket team, they thought one of their islamic soldiers was equivalent to half a dozen of Indian soldiers.

I didn’t realize then, probably Imran Khan was a perfect symbol of this machoism, retrospectively it was a misplaced priority, to cover up the corrupt.

Imran had 3 pace men in his battery, it is easy to find Wasim Akram – more successful than Imran as a bowler – relapsing into a jovial movement. Waqar Yunus appeared less sophisticated, but it was easy to find an independent smile on his face. For daces, however Imran was like bounded. I don’t watch much of TV, but it was clear things were pulling Imran.

Some say he was very much into London night clubs, where he found the much junior Jemima, and it has been reported than Imran had a child from One Ms Sita White. Imran got everything he desired.

Could he have tried to dissociate the Pakisthani nationalism from terrorists who were slaughtering humans after teing them into trees ? I would have liked very much to see active role of Imran finding a way out of the criminal brand of Paki nationalism . He had his time, he had exposure to the world, he had platform of the world, and he was a Pakisthani politician. Imran Khan failed to dissociate the virulent revolutionary islam, though he has all the modern logic available to him.

In my opinion, he failed to rise beyond macho symbol of power of pace-bowling, he failed to rise above the macho terrorists taking on distant countries. During this he lost important fights. I would have taken the re-incarnated Benjir Bhutto any day over this megalomaniac.
noname

Imran Khan says that area has a “democratically” elected govt, and that gives them the power to destroy the “democracy” for a sharia law. This is senseless.

He seems addicted to machoism – he is fascinated by a false heroic sense of that area, a false sense of bravery of fighting the moguls and British.

This line of jingoist logic is the very problem with Pakisthan. Khan should instead have tried to dilute this virulent Pakisthani nationalism during hi years in politics, considering that he had exposure to the world, and he had no issues in picking girls from london pub.
pm317

He seems addicted to machoism – he is fascinated by a false heroic sense of that area, a false sense of bravery of fighting the moguls and British.

I was surprised too about his glossing over the militancy of Taliban..How can we ever accept what they did to Afghanistan before Bush went in there? But he is right to the extent that the US has become a tainted messenger/reformer/problem solver for that region even as it tries to look for a different strategy and to refurbish its image. If it is not the US, who should take its place? Pakistan has to reform itself and turn its attention to good governing.
noname

I had posted a lengthier post as separate comment , which probably went to the spam.
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Heroism is not when you succumb to A, sequentially then you succumb to B, followed by C. The Voice of that of that region is so thoroughly hijacked by the mercenaries, the talibans, other times as a junkyard of Pakisthan extremism, I would have enjoyed the drama of bravery, if had been devoid of raw imagery of violence spread across countries.

That machine like activity – Sufi Mohd, the good taliban lead 10,000 mercenaries to Afganisthan after 2001 – Where you carry a rifle and jump to threaten dark nights in Kashmir Valley or be it Swat Valley. Such cowardly madness shouldn’t be a national obsession, it shouldn’t be passed as a symbol of national superiority.

Imran Khan had received so much respect in his life, he had seen so much of world and wild adulation that you assumed as a fact, that he stood tall above a national cult of worshiping Ghazanavi. In the end, Benzir, the daughter of dynasty, gets far better marks that me, I can’t see Imran as the passionate pace man that delivered the “in-cutters”.
http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

Wow! Interesting comments–I obviously don’t know much of the things going on, there, but as far as what Obama should do, was Khan correct in your opinion? Thanks in advance for your insight.
noname

Obama may have a more difficult task at hand , He also has an additional tool – the billions that Pakisthan gets from USA – Imran didn’t mention this additional tool that Obama has.

I disagree with Imran Khan – taliban political movement has military and terrorist experience, and Pakisthani army was involved ( As evidenced in Kunduz, and using of irregulars elsewhere) with it.

This should be factored in by Obama.
neda

isn’t it a little peculiar that most of the comments here highlight the issue of his personal life which was way back in past. i.e. his relationships. no human is perfect and yeah, instead of looking at his charity work like the cancer hosptial and the college,him buying a house from his london flat money while his counterparts like nawaz sharif and asif zardari own multi hectare palaces in uk and pakistan, you find it hard to digest about his past relationships.
honestly he the only politician whos sitting out outside the parliment without making any sort of nefarious deal with the govt. as many others would ve done if they were in his position.
and what Susan here didnt mention his role of restoring judiciary in the country. thousands of his workers kept vigil alongside the lawyers and the judges who’d been unconstitutionally removed by ex-pres mushharaf. i’ve seen it myself how he srives instead of roaming around in bulletproof sedans like most of the politicians in pakistan do, where people get killed just to get food.
so dont make a scapegoat outta nothing, look at glass half full.
peace