Ex-cricketer Imran Khan woos Pakistan’s turncoat politicians

Bloomberg

Pakistan’s politicians are defecting in increasing numbers to the party of opposition leader and former cricket star Imran Khan, a shift that shows his rising influence and prompted allegations he enjoys the support of the country’s powerful military.
The intensified jockeying comes ahead of a national election on July 25. So far this year 248 politicians, including dozens of federal and provincial lawmakers, have changed sides — the most on record, according to the Free and Fair Election Network, an Islamabad-based watchdog. Of that 92 politicians have joined Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the second-largest opposition party and main rival of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, headed by former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Khan, whose anti-corruption campaign prompted the Supreme Court last year to disqualify and press criminal charges against Sharif, knows he needs to win over a large number of turncoat politicians. The key province is Punjab, which is Sharif’s bastion.
“You need to have a critical mass of these defections, or several big-name defections, to have a real impact on the election,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
If Khan is elected he will face a US that remains distrustful of Pakistan’s efforts to stamp out terrorism and continues to withhold billions of dollars in military aid. For Washington, a Khan victory would be an uneasy prospect. The 65-year-old is a staunch critic of the war in Afghanistan and US drone strikes in Pakistan.
Still, policy makers in Washington “recognise that while a new civilian government might bring a different tone or some different policies, it is not likely to fundamentally change that orientation,” said Joshua White, a former director for South Asian affairs at the US National Security Council.
To investors, Khan represents an untested force in a country dominated by the dynasties of two parties — Sharif’s PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party headed by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
“Investors were concerned over Khan’s earlier statements about his plans to clampdown on corruption and withdraw all the agreements made so far,” said Muzzammil Aslam, the chief executive officer at brokerage firm EFG Hermes Pakistan Ltd. “But Khan’s 100-day plan eased off the investors’ concerns as it didn’t attack businesses.”
In an interview with Bloomberg, Khan mocked the “musical chairs” politicians who chase power and money, but conceded he needed their numbers. Yet his success in drawing turncoats has fuelled allegations from rival politicians and commentators that he’s a pawn in the army’s attempts to engineer a pliant government through media censorship and intimidation.