There are a few matters where Imran Khan’s admirers and critics would disagree. But there’s one interesting aspect about Pakistan’s current prime minister which brings all of them on the same page. That is, they all would agree that they have seen two Imran Khans: a bachelor-playboy who was a cricket star and a fundamentalist politician (Imran Khan 2.0) who wants to recreate Riyasat e Medina.
A lot has been said and written about these two personalities — and perhaps the most fascinating account comes from William Dalrymple, historian and author, who interviewed the two in 1989 and 1996, and wrote about the contrasting experiences in his book The Age of Kali. So, what are these two versions, and what does Dalrymple have to say about them? Let’s find out.
Imran Khan 1.0
In 1989 Imran Khan, the bachelor-playboy, was a National Obsession. According to Dalrymple, he combined the status of royalty, the prestige of a cabinet minister and the gossip value of a pop-star in a country which did not have any royals, whose cabinet ministers were hopelessly corrupt and whose pop-stars were mostly Indian at that time, and therefore national enemies. Every chai-wallah in the country would give you a breakdown of his batting and bowling statistics, the details of his horoscope and a list of his girlfriends in pidgin English or Urdu, whether or not you asked him. His sex life was a matter of national speculation.
When Dalrymple interviewed Imran Khan 1.0 in 1989, the latter confessed that although he came from a conservative background, he liked a bit of both lifestyles: western and Pakistani. He spent summer in England and winter in Pakistan. And as his interviewer noted, he was a compendium of contradictions. For instance, he was extrovert and cripplingly shy, openly arrogant yet disarmingly modest, austere and sensual, jet-set yet oddly primitive. Most importantly, he could switch from one persona to another with remarkable ease.
Within these contradictions you could see the handsome Khan mired in superstitions. He was the patron of a Sufi pir who, he believed, had the second sight. “I have been consulting him for three years and he has never yet been wrong,” Imran Khan said. “He has extraordinary powers.”
Imran Khan 2.0
A lot changed in seven years. By 1996, Imran Khan had retired from cricket (after winning the world-cup) and entered politics. He formed his own political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the same year. When Dalrymple interviewed him this time, he was busy conducting political rallies. His fans rallied behind him and shouted Imran Khan Wazir e Azam. In the political circles, however, there were different kind of whispers. Some did not take him seriously and some found him strange.
The strangeness, many believed, had come from Imran Khan’s recent religious awakenings. It had brought about a profound change not only in his outlook but in his manner as well. The old joie de vivre of the cricket pitches had given way to a new seriousness. His conversations were now peppered with Sufi anecdotes and occasional quotation from the Quran.
There were certain things that caused alarm bells in progressive circles. For instance, he believed that the Islamic Sharia had much to recommend it, comparing the almost complete absence of petty crime in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where Sharia was in force, with the anarchy of New York at night. He also expressed a rather unnerving admiration for some aspects of the Iranian Islamic revolution.
Years later, in 2018, Imran Khan did become the prime minister of Pakistan and he hoped to bring Islamic values to the society through politics. Whatever you make of Khan’s politics, you have to admire him for his courage and persistence, especially when you consider that once-upon-a-time a fortune-teller lady in Spain asked him to never enter politics. “If you do, you will be killed,” she had said. Imran Khan, being as superstitious as he was back then, still took a chance.
Reference Books:
Kalampedia 