He’s been here, there and everywhere this past week — holding noisy demonstrations against Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with Gordon Brown in London; speaking out against the regime at the Asia Society in New York and castigating the Bush government for propping up the Musharraf government at the National Press Club in Washington.
So why has Imran Khan remained on the fringes of Pakistan politics? Do sportsmen make good politicians and could Imran be the man to watch writes Tunku Vardarajan in a December profile for the Financial Times
Imran Khan is a very unusual man. An arrogantly wonderful cricketer – a former captain of Pakistan and candidate for any all-time cricket dream-team – he is now so immersed in his country’s opposition politics that he was thrown into jail for a few days last month by General Pervez Musharraf.
Khan’s singularity, firstly, has to do with the fact that not many sportsmen go into politics. They ply different trades, athletes and politicians, each demanding great dedication to get to the top. Who straddles the two seemingly unconnected worlds? Sebastian Coe, perhaps, in the contemporary era?
A former middle-distance runner, he is now a Conservative member of the House of Lords, though few regarded him as a serious politician (except perhaps William Hague, his one-time boss and jiu-jitsu sparring partner).
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