Imran vs Benazir

Sunday's bomb attack on his Lahore hospital could propel the cricketing playboy, cum Muslim visionary, into the ferocious world of Pakistani politics, says Tim McGirk

Imran Khan is counting the cost of harbouring political ambitions; the sums are mounting rapidly. Over the weekend a bomb tore through his Lahore cancer hospital, killing six people and seriously wounding another 20. Khan's transformation from cricket star and thinking woman's crumpet into social reformer and political visionary was all going terribly smoothly until someone decided to make him a bomb target.

As founder of the Shaukat Memorial Trust Hospital in Lahore, Mr Khan had planned to give a wealthy Pakistani businessman - and possible donor - a tour of his hospital at about noon on Sunday. At the last minute, though, the meeting was called off. Imran stayed home. The 11lb device, hidden under a sofa in the waiting hall, exploded at 12:23 pm, just as Pakistan's most popular hero and his guest would have been making the rounds.

Mr Khan had spent years scraping together donations to build a charitable hospital in memory of his mother, who died of cancer. It was reckoned to be the finest medical facility of its kind in Pakistan. Most of the patients were poor, and they received free cancer treatment. But it was more than a hospital. It was also a symbol of his moral renewal as a Muslim, his ambitions as a reformer, an implicit criticism of the corruption of Pakistan's ruling elite and possibly the launch pad for his bid to unseat prime minister Benazir Bhutto. She for her part is worried that the bomb may simply add to Imran's lustre by making him more of a hero and a martyr in the eyes of the people.

When he was telephoned with news of the blast, Mr Khan raced out to the hospital, on the edge of Lahore, and began helping to move the injured into ambulances, which rushed them to hospitals equipped for casualties. Imran has cultivated an image of cool calmness, indicative of an inner centredness. Witnesses say he was "stunned and angry" as he wandered through the charred remains of his dream. The powerful bomb had destroyed the chemotherapy ward, the outpatient department and parts of the canteen, causing millions of pounds in damages.

"It's the work of a savage or an animal, because no human being can do such a thing to a hospital," said Mr Khan bitterly. Who planted the bomb? The cricket star had no doubt: the motive was political. The bluntly spoken Mr Khan accuses both the government of Benazir Bhutto and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, of incompetence and corruption. "These people who feel threatened by me, the bombing was a clear message from them. I have been receiving verbal threats from some political quarters that I should desist from my plans," he explained angrily.

Those warnings have been coming thick and fast. While Benazir has been publicly polite, her supporters have relished rubbishing Imran's political credentials and ambitions. Salman Taseer, a member of Benazir's Pakistan People's Party, gave this assessment of Imran's prospects: "He does not understand the realities of politics. Politics in Pakistan is a nasty, slow, dangerous grind. I have been to jail 14 times; he has never seen the back end of a jail. If he could tell me the GDP of Pakistan I would jump through the window."

Bhutto's "sports adviser" and Khan's former Pakistan team-mate Sarfraz Nawaz said last year: "He's a cheater - that has been established. He calls himself a devout Muslim - if he is, he should be stoned to death for adultery. Imran has always been a money-minded person. He is cunning and selfish."

Imran is expected to launch a third political party later this week to challenge Ms Bhutto's PPP and Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. Fed up with the pervasive corruption and the vengeful brawling of the two main parties, many Pakistanis are desperate enough to turn to a cricket star as their only hope. Both he and his convert Muslim wife, Jemima - daughter of the British millionaire Sir James Goldsmith - were in London last week. But while Jemima was lunching with Princess Diana, Mr Khan was in Southall gathering funds for his hospital and canvassing for his anti-corruption drive.

Ms Bhutto is rattled. She has banned all fund-raising advertisements for his hospital on the state-run Pakistan television. Her officials smear Mr Khan and his hospital whenever they can, insinuating that he and his relatives are embezzling donations.

Although both are offspring of the feudal aristocracy and attended Oxford University in the early 1970s, the cricket star is widely regarded as a class turncoat. He tries to portray himself as a champion of poor, devout Muslims and a foe of the western-educated "Brown Sahib" culture to which Ms Bhutto and most of the country's political elite belong.

The contest between the two is ferocious. Told of the bomb, Ms Bhutto broke off a visit to the frontier city of Peshawar and flew to Lahore to view the damage and offer condolences. As Najan Seth, a Lahore political commentator, said: "The last thing Benazir wanted was to make a martyr out of Imran. Everyone would turn against her."

Khan refused to tell her. "Her visit was meant to get political mileage out of the misery of people. It was a media stunt," he fumed.

Privately, Ms Bhutto's aides allege that the cricketer may be an unwitting pawn in a plot by "disgruntled agencies" and "militant elements" trying to topple her government. At the outset, he relied on a right-wing Muslim youth organisation, the Pasban, for organising his hospital fund-raising rallies. Mr Khan has also been linked to General Hamid Gul, a former chief of Pakistani military intelligence with strong pan-Islamic views.

In Lahore, sources close to Ms Bhutto's government said that the inquiry into the bomb blast will focus on associates of Mr Khan's within the hospital organisation. This may turn out to be nothing more than a sloppy attempt to frame Mr Khan's colleagues in order to make him look like a well-meaning but rather thick-headed sports star, one who is incapable of running a hospital, let alone a country.

The grand Mogul city of Lahore seethes with other conspiracy theories. One theory puts the blame on the opposition leader, Mr Sharif, who stands to gain from it since many Pakistanis, with or without proof, will jump to the conclusion that Ms Bhutto's henchmen were behind the blast. Mr Sharif in the past has tried to woo the cricket hero over to his party, and he may now try to convince Mr Khan that only by joining forces can they topple Ms Bhutto. When Mr Sharif, himself a keen but overweight cricketer, toured the blast site, he held Mr Khan's hand solicitously as they walked through the smouldering debris of the chemotherapy unit.

Another theory places Mr Khan in the centre of a plot by Muslim extremists (there are many within the Pakistani armed forces and intelligence) who set off the bomb to goad the cricketer - undoubtedly the most popular figure in Pakistan - into batting against Ms Bhutto. Advocates of this theory claim that the Muslim fundamentalists want to get rid of Ms Bhutto for being too pro-western, and that Mr Khan is needed to give their putsch plans a veneer of acceptability.

Imran Khan has lived a gilded life. As captain of Pakistan he led it to a famous win in the cricket World Cup against all odds. He has great wealth and has been the object of desire of hordes of well-heeled women. Even his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith has played well in Pakistan as further evidence of how he manages to get everything he wants. The bomb will give him pause to think before plunging into politics proper. Yet the blast may mark the moment when he steels himself to stand and fight. And if he does the contest will be ferocious.

Imran Khan: a life

Handsome 6ft2 Oxford undergraduate made test debut aged just 18 (1971): Khan leaves Keble College in 1975 as a blue, and with a third-class degree.

Cricketing descendant of proud Parthi warrior race hits women's hearts for six and bowls maidens over: As captain of the Pakistan team, Khan became a favourite British pin-up. He seemed amply to fulfil the role of tall dark stranger; he mixed in the "right circles" and masterfully (some would say bossily) commanded his team to victory on the field.

Fast-bowler Casanova: Khan was a regular in London's nightclubs and gossip pages during the 1980s. He was "linked" with Stephanie Beacham, Goldie Hawn, Lady Liza Campbell, Caroline Kellett, Sarah Giles and Susannah Constantine. Marriage was sometimes rumoured. His cricket improved all the while.

Imran's 50-1 minnows humiliate England: Khan led underdogs Pakistan to triumph over England in the Cricket World Cup Final in Melbourne (1992). He retired having played 88 Tests.

Playboy of Eastern World swaps cricket whites for Pakistani national dress: After retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan's image underwent a transformation as he began to criticise Western culture. Commentators suggested he had political motives as he toured the country and raffled his Mercedes to help pay for a cancer hospital.

Ben Summers

Benazir Bhutto: a life

Born: 21 June, 1953. Found it politically necessary to have an arranged marriage. In 1987 she married Asif Zardari. During her pregnancies, fundamentalists said she should remain at home with her children. But her husband is her knight in shining armour: In her autobiography, Daughter of the East, she said, Zardari thought of her as a lady in distress. He soon discovered that "The lady's not so fragile."

Greatest betrayal: The opposition from her mother and brother Mir. She feels this has damaged the political struggle in Pakistan.

Her husband Asif Zardari is referred to as Mr Ten Per Cent: He was detained for over two years on charges, since abandoned, ranging from fraud to murder.

Bhutto's father mapped out her life: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was executed in 1979, advised her on what to read and how to behave. She conversed at the dinner table with guests like Hubert Humphrey and Henry Kissinger.

As president of the Oxford Union 1976 she drove a yellow MGB sports car: Bhutto wore Anna Belinda dresses and describes her years at Lady Margaret Hall as "the best years of my life." She had a number of British boyfriends.

Saks on Fifth Avenue has her measurements: As a little girl, her clothes were bought from the New York store. Now her jeans have been replaced by traditional shalwar-khameez while a dupatta covers her head at all times.

Ramola Talwar

Imran in his own words

`I thought the campaign against me in the British press about ball- tampering was bad, but it was nothing compared to this onslaught'

On politics in Pakistan, April 1995

`This assumption that I want to be Prime Minister is complete nonsense. I don't want to get mixed up with politics'

February 1995

`Right now, Pakistanis are looking for a saviour. Just because I've built a hospital and led Pakistan to a World Cup win, they think I'm the one. It shows how desperate people are'

April 1995

Politicians are corrupt to the core. They have devoured the wealth of this nation and are thirsting for more'

May 1995

`I don't believe in a parliamentary democracy. Nobody can speak the truth in a party-based system'

January 1995

`It may reach a stage where there are two options - get a green card and emigrate or stay here and fight'

22 February 1996