TheBrief TIME with ... Cricket hero Imran Khan led Pakistan’s team to victory. As a politician, he’s riding a populist wave
THE POTHOLED ROAD TO IMRAN KHAN’S HOME IN Islamabad curls for a mile up a steep hill, where the cricketer turned politician can escape the dust, fumes and backstabbing of Pakistan’s sprawling capital below. The lofty setting gives his converted farmhouse a fortresslike perch—one that hums with the energy of “a government in waiting,” Khan says.
The world once knew Khan as the Oxford-educated playboy who captained Pakistan to its only Cricket World Cup victory, in 1992, and married British heiress Jemima Goldsmith, a close friend of Princess Diana’s. But after two decades in his country’s turbulent political arena, Khan, 65, has a real shot at running the country.
On July 25, Pakistan chooses a new government in general elections. To become
