Can Imran Khan Create a New Pakistan?

Four years ago, the day that Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minister, I wrote that India was entering its most sinister phase since independence. It was a well-founded fear for anyone who had noted Modi's unwavering commitment to Hindu supremacism and the fragility of the Indian economy. Today, as Modi fails to create jobs or eradicate corruption, his government has resorted to violence against minorities and "anti-nationals". As Imran Khan prepares to become Pakistan's new prime minister, he is not unreasonable He settles into his most turbulent phase since 1947.

It is true that, unlike Modi, Khan has no tainted record of governance. He also has not beaten drums for far-right ideology since his childhood. He came to politics in his forties after a career in sport and philanthropy; and, unlike Modi, he was known as a Western playboy.

This vast experience – of the upper middle class of Lahore and plutocratic London, piety as well as hedonism – might incline somebody to give him the benefit of the doubt, and credit with ideological flexibility rather than fanaticism. Indeed, Khan's often expressed commitment to social justice is admirable in a society that commonly defies this ideal. Yet, waiting impatiently in the antechamber of power, he has manifested disturbing tendencies.

Personality traits are barely negligible in politics, as Donald Trump revealed in his move to earth as the most powerful man in the world. In the case of Khan, another unproven outsider in mainstream politics, they are a crucial clue to how he will behave in the office.

It has long been clear that he had an ego the size of a trump. easy erotic conquests helped to build. He entered politics in the 1990s with a sense of common law among the political dynasties that he despised, and a series of setbacks seemed to just harden his certainty that political power in Pakistan was his birthright.

Convinced that he is the divinely ordained agent In recent years, Mr. Khan has been striving to reduce the fury of his country's fragile democratic institutions. He injected a hysterical and hostile tone into Pakistani politics, which decades of coups and assassinations had already degraded into a zero-sum affair. For someone claiming to be revolutionary, committed to destroying the venal dynastic elites of Pakistan, he seemed too eager to make deals with the old regime – his sordid politicians, his hired fundamentalists, his dark spies and his megalomaniac officers. Taking advantage of being a "true liberal" – as opposed to those whom he calls "westernized" liberals -, Khan has vigorously defended Pakistan's draconian anti-blasphemy law. He also did little to prevent members of his personality cult from aggressively attacking his detractors, especially women and western liberals, on social media.