PAKISTAN

‘It’s Just the Beginning’

In an exclusive interview with NEWSWEEK shortly before Pakistani police caught up with him, Imran Khan discusses the emergency, his plans to mobilize students and how the nation feels about Musharraf.

By Ron Moreau | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Nov 14, 2007 | Updated: 11:53 a.m. ET Nov 14, 2007

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Discuss

Posted By: hashimsatgmail @ 11/23/2007 7:19:07 PM

Comment: Imran Khan's analysis of the Pakistani political perspective is shallow and childish. He is a half crazy ethnically motivated person with great failures in his personal married life. He cannot lead the national family, when he could not hold on to his own. His own allies, Jamat e Islami, work to destroy his image, as they did in the Lahore's Punjab University recently. Imran Khan has Nike running shoes on his feet all the time :-), to run away and escape .... that simply explains his mind set now. As a cricket legend he was respected, but he has lost that respect lately.
Posted By: irfankh @ 11/18/2007 2:51:34 AM

Comment: Congratulation to Imran Khan for his excellent performance in Pakistani Politics. Musharraf on other hand not only destroying all institutions of Pakistan like judiciary and the army but black mailing the washington where unfortunately (perhaps) unwise people are sitting. They failed to realize that their blind support towards this dictator will cost a worst defeat in war on terror and hate for US policies. Mussharf attention is not on Al-Qaeda but as a classical dictator his entire energy is to remain in power till his death.
Posted By: rat 04 @ 11/17/2007 8:20:19 AM

Comment: Imran Khan is the most deserving candidate to lead the nation. He has the integrity, the credentials and chrisma to take this country forward. The biggest proponent of independent judicial system from where springs the justice, fairness and rule of law.
Posted By: Engrbinyameen @ 11/16/2007 2:07:00 AM

Comment: Imran is a good, honest and brave, we wish him good luck. IJT will never allow anyone to come in university because afterall we all are DICTATOR
- Posted By: zhouhao0410 @ 11/16/2007 9:15:13 AM
  
  Comment: *** pakistan
Posted By: halfmad @ 11/16/2007 12:50:53 AM

Comment: I agree with ayaz in the sense that Imran is the only hope for survival as far as the current political scenerio is concerened... friends its time to strengthen him.. but those IJt students...
Posted By: ayazkhan @ 11/15/2007 10:51:05 AM

Comment: Dear Pathfinder,

You are again right in your comments. But Imran Khan going it alone is not something chosen by him. While he is sincere and honest and has only the good of Pakistan at heart look at the rest of the crowd. Maulana Fazlur Rehman ? What can be said about him ? He is a hypocrite one who runs with the hare and hunts with the hound. His forte is supposed to be religion but I dont see anything religious about him. Nawaz Sharif ? I still remember his air of grandeur which he adopted in his hay days. I still remember the day when I saw the group of PML hooligans assaulting the supreme court. Now the shoe is on the other foot so Mr. Sharif is becoming democrat. Benazir ? All my youth was spent as a PPP supporter till the moment when the daughter of the east supported a failing dictator to survive to get rid of cases against her. That was the end of my obsession with PPP. Qazi Hussain Ahmed ? Maybe well meaning but a spent force. Altaf ? I dont consider him a political leader.

Imran is the only alternative that we have for survival. His political acumen is growing and the most positive factor about him that he is honest to the nation. Can anyone say the same without reservation about any other political leader at present ?

I campaigned for Imran in the 2002 election and I interact with many people and my reading is that Imran has a growing support amongst the youth, the intellegentia and people who see him as the only viable alternative. I wont claim that he will win the election but I believe that he will get few seats this time particularly from Urban areas which will increase his weight in Pakistani politics.
Posted By: True Pathfinder @ 11/15/2007 9:17:22 AM

Comment: There are couple of things I hate about Imran Khan. One is that he doesnt really know where to stop talking bad about Pakistan. In his interview, he claims that General's continuing rule is resulting in the spread of mosques and madrissas which are effectively projected as symbols of terrorist breeder houses in the western media. That quagmire worries millions of muslims in Pakistan who dont agree to what west says about the Islamic institutes. My recent observation of Imran have softened my heart for him on a personal level but realistically speaking there is too much dirt for him to handle in Pakistani politics. He could face deliveries bowled at him by single bowler in cricket, but politics is a different game. Here you face crap thrown at you from all sides. You simply cant stay clean evading all that. Imran Khan appreared carried away in this interview. He was obviously illusioned of a great support from students, lawyers and other politicians behind him while speaking with this correspondent. But the way things happened in Punjab University, he must return back to reality. I feel few sympathies with him.
Posted By: ayazkhan @ 11/15/2007 9:06:36 AM

Comment: Dear Pathfinder,You are very right in pointing out the trash can of Pakistani politics. Yet I take heart from the sincerity and honesty of Imran Khan. We need people like Imran. We need leaders who are sincere to Pakistan , takes a stand and does not deviate, transparantly honest and person of integrity. Imran Khan is one such person. I pray to God to keep him safe.
- Posted By: True Pathfinder @ 11/15/2007 9:37:12 AM
  
  Comment: >>> Dear ayazkhan, I appreciate your reply to my comments. I take it that you are agreeing to Imran's politics. The way I see it, you simply cant survive in Pakistan's politics attempting a struggle all alone. You got to appear in a group of same side players. We dont see Imran to be a serious part of any such alliance. Other politicians have never taken him so seriously. While he makes sense of most of what he says, he has a long way to go yet to even get in partnership with one another player of the game. I seriously doubt his claims that he is going to do better in the next elections even if that is conducted by Jimmy Carter himself. One thing General Musharraf is right about is that currently country is in chaos. We need to let this storm run its course and wait till things get clearer. But, I am scared, there will be too much lost in the meantime. The American media is already started talking about the safety of the nuclear bombs. This is so obvious that the government of United States wants to leverage this situation to their maximum advantage. They are probably looking at gaining complete access and control over the Pakistan's nuclear establishments which they had in their agenda for a long time. Well ... only God knows what is going to happen.
Posted By: True Pathfinder @ 11/15/2007 8:58:41 AM

Comment: Imran Khan is a headstrong person. I wish he has learnt the lesson on his arrest. He dreamt of leading a ' student revolution ' in modern Pakistan launching from Punjab University. It is absolutely clearly known to everyone that Punjab University is a stronghold of followers of Qazi Hussein's Jama'at Islami. How could he expect to earn any glory playing his game on their pitch ? I reckon he contacted Qazi and got his ' blessings ' to appear and launch his student movement from Punjab University. But he is still too naive to understand that Jama'at Islami is hypocrits at all levels starting right from Qazi himself. That is extremely self centered and self serving political party. They use the name of Islam for their own interests. Most unfortunately, they have infiltrated some of the edcation institutes and have control over youngsters most of whom are forced to link to them for the sake of solving their student level problems.

Pakistan politics is a rotten trash field. You group all the politicians together and you'd see wolves of different colors. But they all are wolves. Currently they are fighting for their share of the prey which is not ' equally ' distributed among them. Instead a larger wolf has kept them away for a long time. The people of Pakistan just cant come to realise what kind of leaders they are following. Common man is suffering and getting hurt in this fight of the wolves.

You see, most of these politicians were against one another in the past. Nawaz Sharif was against Benazir Bhutto against Imran Khan against Qazi Hussein Ahmad against Nawab Bugti, and all against one another. Recently, they tried to forge a political front against the General Musharraf and they met in UK. Some joined and some split right after that. Nawaz Sharif and Benazir announced a ' partnership ' to fight the General. At the same time, Benazir struck the deal with the General for her own benefits. She quit Nawaz Sharif and joined with the General. Nawaz Sharif tried to enter country and was deported. The politicians in Pakistan thought that the entire show was left to them. Benazir returned Pakistan imagining herself to be the next Prime Minister. But things went wrong somewhere and she threw the deal with the General and decided to take the whole nation to herself. Now, she wants to join Nawaz Sharif and others again. Imran Khan very rightly pointed out that she has no credibility left to her. She might join any group ... and as she has done many times in the past that she gets the advantage and then ditch her partners. She is a most untrustworthy and most corrupt politician in the world with no human shame at all. I have no clue what will come out when this storm will settle. The only thing right now I can imagine is that it will be the beginning of a new storm at the end of current one. May God save Pakistan from the wolves.
Posted By: ayazkhan @ 11/15/2007 8:52:27 AM

Comment: Imran, as a leader is a man of integrity. What he says makes sense and that is the way to progress for Pakistan. We must look to charismatic leaders like Imran to bring Pakistan out of this quagmire. As far as Tehrik I Insaf being a small party I believe that if we have free and transparent election Tehrik might come out as the tird force just behind PPP and PML (N) and this is the begining. God bless Imran and keep him safe
Posted By: ayazkhan @ 11/15/2007 8:52:09 AM

Comment: Imran, as a leader is a man of integrity. What he says makes sense and that is the way to progress for Pakistan. We must look to charismatic leaders like Imran to bring Pakistan out of this quagmire. As far as Tehrik I Insaf being a small party I believe that if we have free and transparent election Tehrik might come out as the tird force just behind PPP and PML (N) and this is the begining. God bless Imran and keep him safe
Posted By: nazia @ 11/15/2007 4:08:39 AM

Comment: Imran khan is working on those principles that are valid in developing countries but as a nation we need him..He is trying to survive in mafia culture made by army, feudals ,religious groups and corrupt establishment who are not allowing a moderate class to survive and that is why he is not achieving his goals.Mussaraf and army mafia hate him as he always criticised them and tried to highlight their grey areas in front of public that is no acceptable to ruling mafia.At this moment of chaos and turmoil he is our hope and strength.
- Posted By: Unthinkable @ 12/02/2007 3:15:46 PM
  
  Comment: imran khan is imran khan ,in response to ijt misbehaviuor with legendrey khan its whole organizational setup has been routed from the punjab university.And its the future lesson for all those petty souls that who so ever try to demean Imran khan will lament and suffer.We the students of punjab university showed to the world that we respect our beloved national hero the legendry imran khan and its the Nations turn rise to his honest and credible calls aginst the cowrdice and thugish regime of general musharaf.
  
  Rise the Nation of lambs and learn the Way of tigers from your hero.
- Posted By: Unthinkable @ 12/02/2007 2:59:30 PM
  
  Comment: dear pathfider,
  
  you must have seen what we students have done to the ijt workers after what they did to imran khan in the punjab university.Imran khan is the lion of pakistan.the real concience of this country.its a pity that this God forsaken nation doesnot realise the worth of such a gem .in any other country imran would have been followed by millions on the road and would surely have been their president or prime minister ,but alas such good things dont happen in pakistan.we are again and again brutalised and terrorised by charecters like musharraf , Altaf hussain and the thugs of PML(q) and we moan like chickens in front of them but when a courageous man like imran khan come s on the scene to lead us we have all the shame full and cowrdice excuses to malign or undermine him.i hope imran one day become the president or prime minister of this country and teach the lesson of TIGERliness to the Nation of lambs.