A cricket hero, an international playboy, a political dynamo William Langley tracks the trajectory of Imran Khan and ponders what his prime ministership will mean for the women of Pakistan.
In the week that Imran Khan became Pakistan’s Prime Minister-Elect, a young woman, who lived not far from his villa in the dry hills above Islamabad, was abducted, tortured with electric cables and beaten to death, allegedly by her in-laws, who disapproved of her lifestyle.
Such murders and extreme punishments of women are so routine in Pakistan as to barely figure in the daily news rounds, and as Imran appeared before an ecstatic crowd of supporters to promise “a new country we can all be proud of”, no one thought the issue worth raising
It has been a long road for the former cricket star, playboy and high society heart-throb, but the list of challenges that now face him is even longer. Prominent among them is delivering on his pledge to improve the lives of women in a country where all power remains tethered to ancient codes of patriarchy.
At 65, Imran has lost little of the outrageous good looks that earned him, in his party animal days, the accolade of “the world’s most beautiful man”. The dark mane of hair remains lush and wild, the eyes moist and soulful, the features rich with the rugged handsomeness that his ex-girlfriend, model Marie Helvin, described as “a work of genius”. But the only party currently on his mind is called Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), a grass-roots organisation which he founded 22 years ago with the ambitious aim of ending the decades-old stitch-up that keeps the country and its 200 million people in the hands of a few family clans and a watchful military.
Sceptics have long scoffed at Imran’s admittedly vague promises to end the inequality and corruption that run deep in this volatile, nuclear-armed Muslim country, but in July’s general election his party achieved an extraordinary breakthrough, winning the largest number of seats in the National Assembly.
This story is from the November 2018 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
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This story is from the November 2018 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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