Imran Khan

Calcutta: Imran Khan, who didn’t contest the elections earlier this year as a matter of principle, has finalised plans for a True Independence rally in Islamabad on August 14, coinciding with Pakistan’s Independence Day.

Pakistan’s only World Cup-winning captain (honoured by the Asian Cricket Council as a legend last week) wasn’t available for comment, but a spokesman for his Tehreek-e-Insaaf party confirmed the rally on Saturday.

The party was launched in early 1996, soon after a blast at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Lahore, set up by Imran in his mother’s memory.

“A number of issues remain to be addressed by the present government (headed by Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani) and those need to be highlighted. Mr Khan, who is in the UK at this point in time, will lead the rally on August 14,” the spokesman told The Telegraph on Saturday.

One of the issues being raised by Imran is the tardy progress (or no progress at all) in the investigation pertaining to one-time foe Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. The former Prime Minister was killed last December.

Ironically, Benazir’s party, the PPP, is in power.

Imran, who won a National Assembly seat in the 2002 elections from Mianwali (in Punjab), boycotted the elections this time largely because the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf (in November 2007) hadn’t been reinstated.

There were other reasons too.

Actually, Imran resigned from the National Assembly (seat NA-71) even before the sackings. His close association with Mianwali, though, continues.

In fact, despite Imran’s differences with the government, Prime Minister Gilani accepted the invitation to inaugurate the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT)-built Namal College there on April 27.

The MDT is headed by Imran, who took the initiative to get it going some years ago. Among other things, the MDT had been imparting vocational training.

“It was a soft inauguration and there was nothing political about it… The Prime Minister was kind enough to announce a grant of Rs 30 million for the technical facility,” an associate of Imran pointed out.

The college is, of course, Imran’s second venture (after the pioneering and hugely successful Shaukat Khanum) aimed at reaching out to sections of society in need of help.

In one form or the other.

Education and health care are among Imran’s top priorities. Not to forget an end to corruption and the need for transparency in the government’s functioning.

Even if the elderly haven’t been bowled over by Imran’s brand of politics, the youth see him as a messiah of sorts.

The college (next to Namal Lake, and so the name), incidentally, has already been granted the status of an associate college of the University of Bradford in the UK.

Imran, it may be recalled, is the chancellor of the University of Bradford.

While the college was inaugurated in April, only some of the classes are currently being held. It should be fully functional by the end of September.

According to Imran’s associate, there are plans to develop Mianwali into a “Knowledge City.” And for the college to eventually grow into a university of international standards.

Trust the 55-year-old Imran, who twice turned down offers of Prime Ministership from Musharraf, before they became sworn enemies, to think big.

It’s because Imran has a vision that most of the hardcore politicians aren’t sure of how to deal with him.

Footnote: The college website has this message from Imran: “The state school system in Pakistan is in an advanced state of decay and there is massive rural unemployment. I want to make young people employable by arming them with the skills they will need to get jobs.”