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| Imran Khan |
Calcutta: Fans weren’t the only ones who didn’t want to let Imran Khan go, on Tuesday morning, after an event-packed 24 hours in the city.
Indeed, the mosquitoes in the Reserved Lounge of the disgraceful international terminal were as keen to have a piece of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain and, possibly, a future Prime Minister.
“It’s all right, let it be,” Imran said rather quietly, when a Customs officer asked a subordinate to call somebody from the Airports Authority of India, which is responsible for the Lounge’s upkeep.
However, Imran did comment that “investments” should be made to upgrade the facility. When somebody pointed out that a new terminal was being built, not far from where he was sitting, Imran almost took back his words.
Imran spent around 45 minutes in the Lounge, but he barely had 45 seconds to himself. Security personnel of different ranks, men from Customs, airline staffers... Everybody turned up for a photograph.
They were polite, but even more polite was Imran himself: “Okay, please come,” he kept saying. Most of his admirers parked themselves on the sofa where he was waiting for the Emirates flight to be ready for departure. Imran didn’t mind.
Fortunately, the power didn’t go off, or else it would’ve been a repeat of what happened at the Book Fair on Monday evening.
Imran didn’t talk of that experience, but he did ask The Telegraph: “How many hours of power cuts do you have in a day? In Islamabad, it’s between six-eight hours... Our power situation is awfully bad.”
When told that the Calcuttans didn’t have to suffer like those in Pakistan’s capital city, Imran was impressed. “Really? That’s very good.”
If Imran’s Tehreek-e-Insaf does get to rule Pakistan, then tackling the power crisis will be an absolute priority.
There was just about time to bring up a couple of cricketing issues. His advice to Sachin Tendulkar, who is finding it hard to get his 100th International hundred and (b) his take on Steve Waugh’s suggestion that players voluntarily undertake lie-detector tests.
“Sachin’s becoming conscious of that (elusive) hundred... The impression I get is that he’s becoming ‘tight’ after a certain stage in his innings... He should be himself, that’s it,” Imran responded.
As for Steve’s suggestion, Imran stated: “I’m not clear about how accurate such tests are... Seems fine in principle, but I don’t know enough... Disclosing assets under oath would be a better way of ensuring that the game remains clean.”
The rush of the photograph-seekers ruled out a third question. In any case, it was time by then to start moving towards the departure area.
In keeping with the previous 24 hours, Imran was mobbed there by co-passengers. Significantly, he’d declined to jump the queue at the security check.
On landing in Dubai, Imran was to take a connecting flight for Islamabad, getting there well before Wednesday’s ruling by the Supreme Court.
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