Who Is Imran Khan, Pakistan's Next PM?

A BBC profile of Imran Khan that's truly worth reading. Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), won the latest election in the country. Khan, 65, who used to be the country's most famous cricket star, is going to be Pakistan's new Prime Minister—and although the other parties are accusing him of fraud, it does not seem the results will be overturned. 

One of the main reasons might be the fact that Khan, whose success broke the constant power of Pakistan's two main political families, the Bhuttos and the Sharifs, has powerful supporters, especially the country's powerful military.

In fact, Khan's success is extraordinary. He struggled for years to turn popular support into electoral gains. He launched the party in 1996. In 2002, he was the only canditate who won a seat. In 2008, PTI boycotted the vote. During the last election in 2013, Khan's party finally became a serious player.

Khan, who is a Pashtun by ethnicity, wants to change major things. He wants to end corruption and forge peace with militant groups like the Pakistani Taliban in the Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border. 

Some people do not like him for that and call him "Taliban Khan". However, many people also believe that endless military operations in the tribal areas only kill many innocent people and fuel extremism. Thus a peace dialogue is the only option.

However, one major critique is that Khan will just act as a puppet of the military that made his victory possible. But Khan has an answer to these allegations: According to him, he wants to act like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who dismantled the military in the first years of his term.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if Khan's recipe will fail or not.