People & Power

Imran Khan: Pakistan Decides

We go behind the scenes with the cricketer turned politician on the final few days of his election campaign.

Last month Pakistanis voted in the country’s first fully democratic transition of power – a general election to decide the political shape and colour of a new government.

One of the most prominent candidates was Imran Khan, former international cricket star turned politician, whose Movement for Justice or Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) was competing for office with the country’s two largest political parties, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PLM-N).

In the run up to the polling day Khan and the PTI were riding a tidal wave of popular support that he referred to as the ‘tsunami’. With a platform based on challenging the political status quo, a young and motivated team of supporters and a high-profile campaign based on a rolling rock concert like series of rallies and personal appearances, it seemed as though he had generated enough momentum to really give Pakistan’s political establishment a run for its money.

He had come a long way in just a year. Back in May 2012, as his campaign was getting underway, People & Power had followed Khan for two weeks as he helicoptered around the country attempting to raise support and assemble a diverse coalition of political interests. Back then he had been under no illusions about the magnitude of the problems he faced.

“To set up a party is not easy,” he said. “To set up a party in an entrenched two-party system is even more difficult. And then to take on the entire political class is even more difficult.”

We returned with filmmaker Karim Shah to follow Khan and his team through the last frenetic days to the election. 

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