Can Imran Khan meet the hopes of Pakistani voters and keep generals at bay? | News from the world

It is not difficult to understand why Imran Khan's dazzling victory in the Pakistani elections has attracted worldwide media coverage. The story of a screaming hero and an old playboy turned into a political superstar and the scourge of the establishment that spawned him was too good to be missed

Given From the history of Pakistan's coups, Khan's ascent seemed a modern parable announcing the triumph of the people. democracy over assorted solar forces, coupled with "deep" military control, manipulation and repression.

Although this story begins, it did not really go that way. Indeed, Khan owed his success, at least in part, to the secret interference of these same ghosts and generals, according to EU observers. Yet who governs Pakistan, and how, is still a matter of great international importance. Take the female suffrage. Equal voting rights are absent in some Muslim countries. But Pakistan, where women represent 44 percent of eligible voters, has made exceptional progress. Veiled women from conservative tribal areas like South Waziristan made history last Wednesday when they voted for the first time.

Pakistan counts, because its young population of more than 200 million (66% are under 30 years old) a country with high potential handicapped by endemic poverty, illiteracy and inequality. It is also, and this is not a coincidence, a battleground between anti-Western Islamists, trained in international jihad in the Saudi-funded madrassas, against the US-based anti-Western Islamists. secular and anglophone elite. This is a central element of the "war on terror". Its stability and security, or lack thereof, have a potentially global impact.

For the British, Pakistan has a constant fascination, rooted in the disastrous part of the Raj in its bloody birth of 1947 and its close and continuous ethnic and cultural ties. For Americans, self-proclaimed heirs of the empire, Pakistan plays the dual role of indispensable ally and nasty duplicates in their endless Afghan drama. For many in India, Islamabad is the next armed nuclear scarecrow. For expansionist China, Pakistan is an essential link in its grandiose franchise, based on loans, investments and goodwill from Beijing.

How the untested Khan, totally lacking in government experience, will address these complex problems and historical burdens. open to the question. What is clear is that it has changed dramatically since his days in the West End. Launched in 1996 by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which means "movement for justice," a new Khan, now 65, made the will of God and the struggle against corruption its main objectives

. Being the Islamic welfare state that was envisaged, Pakistan is a country where politics is a game of loot and plunder, "Khan wrote in his memoir, Pakistan: A Personal History . New party, he says, will strive to "put an end to the operation and ensure a society based on honesty, merit and integrity." [19659002] Khan adopts a conservative religious perspective that favors Sharia law and controversially supports radical laws against blasphemy.His criticism of American drone strikes earned him the nickname "Taliban Khan" and he rediscovered the Afghan roots of his Pashtun family and tribal identity, coincidentally or not, it won the support of the conservatives.

Similarly, courting populist opinion, Khan returned to the Pakistani ruling class. educated in the West, despite his graduation from the. University of Oxford: Colonialism had caused lasting damage across the subcontinent, he writes, destroying self-esteem. "The inferiority complex that is rooted in a conquered nation results in imitating some of the worst aspects of the conquerors, while neglecting its own great traditions."

Twenty years of climbing Disraeli's greasy perch may have calmed Khan a little, but not entirely. Observers say that he remains a passionate and instinctive man with authoritarian instincts.

But the conciliatory tone of Thursday's victory speech, in which he called for national unity, surprised and relieved critics. Khan said that he would seek to improve relations with India and Afghanistan, where a nascent peace process is slowly advancing.

He even offered an investigation into the opposition allegations of vote rigging. Although the outcry provoked by the "stolen" elections is spreading – the minor parties say that they are planning street protests – Khan's offer seems to have caught his eye. The main opposition, the PMLN, abandoned its threat of boycotting parliament and accepted defeat. An editorial of the newspaper Dawn entitled "Time to move on", stated that Khan and the PTI had shown "genuine national political interest". For that reason, he said, "he should have the political space to try to turn his ideas into reality."

If Khan can do it, while maintaining a calm and unifying approach, is now the biggest issue in Pakistan politics. Two immediate problems stand out. One is how to prevent the economy from imploding under the increasing pressure of debt and devaluation. The other is how the new government can escape the clutches of the dominant army, which will await spinoffs for its electoral "assistance".

Pakistani generals have the habit of exercising exclusive control of foreign and security policy. Challenging them can be a career or even an end-of-life experience. So, if Khan, for example, wants to break up with the United States, make friends with India or talk to terrorists, he'd better watch his back. Whatever the popular scenario about the redrawing of democracy, the hidden hand on the shoulder of the new prime minister is real. It will be difficult to get rid.