How should the world treat Imran Khan?

Cricket player turned politician Imran Khan was finally accepted as Pakistan's next prime minister. I say "finally" because the electoral commission has managed to add to the widespread concerns about elections by inexplicably delaying its announcement of the result. Almost all parties in Pakistan, other than Khan, have contested the results; Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan's Muslim League-Nawaz, who won the last general election, tweeted about "overt and massive irregularities" and argued that Pakistan's democratization had been "postponed for decades" [19659005]. The past year has seen the disqualification of his brother Nawaz, the democratically elected prime minister, and then an election campaign that was far from right. Most outside Pakistan will agree with Sharif and his colleagues from other parties, and wonder if a government in power in this way should be considered legitimate. But where does this leave the rest of the world? Through his skilful management of this election, the Pakistani military establishment has presented the world with a problem that has no easy solution.

Khan has been in the public eye for decades – for more than 20 years as an aspiring prime minister, and before that as a charismatic captain of Pakistan's cricket team. When this team won the World Cup over 25 years ago, Khan made a speech that was amazing in his egoism: He actually forgot to thank his young teammates. After his electoral victory, his teammates in the powerful establishment – the "boys", as some Pakistanis call them euphemistically – will certainly expect more tangible thanks.

But here is the dilemma we all face. On one side, we must continue to support the democratization of Pakistan – which means engaging with its civilian leaders, rather than with Rawalpindi's generals. On the other hand, do we want to help legitimize an elected government with the open support of the military?

You might argue that we should wait to see what kind of prime minister Khan becomes. But, frankly, our expectations should be low. Khan's political positions in the past have been troubling – especially his flirtation with the obscurantist religious right, which is really very obscurantist in Pakistan. For example, he voted for religious laws that make it impossible to prosecute rape cases. During his campaign, he portrayed himself as a defender of Pakistan's rigorous and anti-blasphemous law. It's hard to imagine that a Khan-led administration would do anything other than what the military would like to do – protect those who are conducting attacks in Afghanistan and India, defending the interests Ingrained Economics of the Army and Hold the Fires of

None of this is good news for ordinary Pakistanis or for the rest of the world. Khan's anti-Western rhetoric may have been strident, but the reality will exceed his rhetoric. The Pakistani economy is on the brink of the balance of payments crisis; sooner or later, and probably sooner, the new government will have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for support. Sooner or later, but probably later, the new Prime Minister will also realize that the "new Pakistan" robust that he has promised his constituents will need him to complete the structural reforms that his predecessors left unfinished.

After all, Nawaz Sharif himself was once a creature of the army: He came to power as the acolyte of the military dictator Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, who led Pakistan into the 1980s. Sharif 's relationship with the military, however, deteriorated once he was in power and developed a small business power base of himself that was his own. He was waiting for him to take over the entrenched interests that dominated the Pakistani economy. It is not impossible that a similar dynamic will occur during the first years of Khan's tenure.

India and the West should therefore be cautious. Kissing Khan too early would be a mistake, as it would signal support for the military management of the electoral process. But we should be aware of any sign that Khan – a man with enough ego for a whole cricket team – is breaking up with his powerful backers. After all, how long will a man like Imran Khan be satisfied by not being the captain of his own team?