How Imran Khan became the man set to 'lead Pakistan into the future'

In the 1990s, when Pakistani journalists were still permitted to come to India, one of Pakistan’s most respected political commentators and a truly decent human being, the late M B Naqvi, was approached by an Indian news magazine to write a profile of Imran Khan. The context? Khan was Pakistan’s hottest property, one of its most colourful personalities, and Indians were riveted by the charmed life he seemed to lead – a cancer hospital in his mother’s name, institutions of learning and the first forays into politics, but with a seemingly liberal and often confused agenda.

“Imran Khan,” asked the gentle Naqvi: “You want a profile of Imran Khan?” Incredulously, he added: “But he’s a duffer.”

That was then and this is now. Khan has undergone a comprehensive metamorphosis, burying most of his socialite past and emerging as the man who will take Pakistan into the future.

Let us be clear. Whatever his promises on ‘naya Pakistan’ Khan still has to answer questions at the Election Commission of Pakistan on a petition last year by Akbar S Babar, a former party colleague who fell out with him. Babar alleged that nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds were collected through two offshore companies, registered with Imran Khan’s signature, and that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from West Asia to accounts of party functionaries. On the face of it, it sounds like a hawala operation.