National

Cricket star is a front-runner to become Pakistan's next prime minister

Pakistan's biggest sports celebrity, cricket star Imran Khan, is riding an anti-corruption theme and a groundswell of support from young people in a strong bid to become the country's next prime minister this month.

Khan, a former member of the National Assembly, is running in the July 25 election as the lead candidate of the Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which means "Pakistan Movement for Justice," and appears to be more popular than his rivals on social media.

Khan is running on a platform that calls for creating more jobs and housing for poor Pakistanis, reducing chronic power outages, improving education and health, and cracking down on government corruption, which is rampant throughout the country.

For Khan's party to win, it must overcome bias from the country's mainstream news outlets, which devote most of their positive coverage to the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) – which had been the ruling party for the past five years – or other parties.

The current prime minister, Nasirul Mulk, is a caretaker who has been in office only since June. Pakistani politics have been in disarray since last year, when then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was forced out of office for corruption. This month he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined more than $9 million.

A recent  Institute for Public Opinion Research survey of voters in Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, showed a majority backing the PMLN party. But such surveys in the past proved to be inaccurate and were paid for by political parties to boost support for their candidates.

Pakistani mainstream media openly support different parties and attack those they oppose, such as  the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) led by 23-year-old Manzoor Pashtoon from the Mehsud tribal area. Some accuse him without evidence of being an agent of the CIA and the Indian intelligence agency, RAW.

More than 3,000 candidates from 193 parties are contesting 272 seats in the National Assembly. Sixty are reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslim religious minorities.

All the parties are appealing to the religious beliefs of this devout Muslim nation of more than 200 million people, promising to faithfully follow strict religious customs.

Khan's PTI has a greater chance of coming out on top this time because a majority of parties or many of their candidates are joining PTI  in a coalition.

More people, particularly youth, are following the campaign through social media than ever before, and Khan is taking advantage of it more than other candidates, promoting his main issues of reform and clean government.

Khan, 65, retired from sports competition in 1992 after leading Pakistan's cricket team to its only world championship.

A challenge for all the parties is convincing voters that they will deliver on their campaign promises. In the past, they have vowed to improve health care and education, eradicate poverty and eliminate corruption. Yet, voters have seen very little progress on these fronts, with the possible exception of Khan's PTI. It has a better track record for accomplishments.

Mansoor Zeb, an analyst with the Pakistan Institute for Economic Development in the capital Islamabad, said Khan effectively promoted economic development in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where his governing party also reduced terrorism and expanded women's rights.

One of the issues is relations with the United States as a partner in the fight against global terrorism and finding a way to end the 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan.

Khan has pledged to support the U.S. in fighting terrorists but opposes U.S.-backed operations by the Pakistani military that have killed innocent civilians in its campaign to root out extremists.

Khan said at a news conference last Thursday that "we will communicate with the U.S. on good relations, but the way they have treated Pakistan as a doormat is not fair. We have suffered a lot. Thousands of innocent people died during terror attacks."

Khan has his detractors. Islamabad-based human rights activist Haroon Baloch said he voted for Khan in the 2013 elections "because I was tired of corrupt old faces. ... However, Khan couldn't deliver the way he pledged."

"Khan himself in an interview accepted his failure in refraining his people from corruption," Baloch added. "His party has been found to incite hatred against other political parties and leaders. I cannot vote him for these reasons."

For many other Pakistanis, Khan is viewed as a fresh political face who can disrupt the current system.

"This time I will support Imran Khan because we have tried others candidates plenty of times with no development and only increasing unemployment, (power outages), terrorism and corruption," said Azmat Shah, founder of DRUPAK software company in Peshawar. "So I will vote to have change this time."