Can social media propel 'rock star' politician Imran Khan to power in Pakistan?
Wajahat Khan / NBC News
Imran Khan, seated at right, prepares to take part in his - and Pakistan's - first ever Google Hangout.
Whether commanding a rally of hundreds-of thousands in a Lahore park, a roundtable of experts in an Islamabad hotel or a garden of politicized housewives in a Karachi country club, Pakistan's legendary former cricket captain exudes charisma. Even his unfinished "peace rally" to protest hugely unpopular U.S. drone strikes - which Pakistani officials halted before it reached its destination in South Waziristan - earned him headlines around the world.
Khan, 60, is widely seen as one of the country's most popular politician as well as its most eligible bachelor. And if opinion polls are to be believed, he will play a key role in the formation of Pakistan's next government.
But Khan is not business as usual for Pakistan.
He commands serious star power despite not belonging to the landed or industrial dynasties that have ruled the country since its birth in 1947. Nor is he part of the country's military, which has governed the Islamic Republic for more than three of its six and half decades. Instead, he shot to fame as a star of cricket, a game that has a near-religious following in Pakistan. On his way, he married - and divorced - glamorous British socialite Jemima Goldsmith.
He does not appear to court the traditional media, although it certainly chases him.
The waiting list for television anchors and reporters hoping to snag a one-on-one with Khan is around two months long. He has written-off Pakistan's rambunctious mainstream and privately owned media as "prone to being corrupt" and "marginal to vested interests."
So what is the secret to Khan's success in projecting his political agenda across Pakistan? In short, it's what he calls the "democratic and incorruptible" forces of Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.
Khan, 60, is widely seen as one of the country's most popular politician as well as its most eligible bachelor. And if opinion polls are to be believed, he will play a key role in the formation of Pakistan's next government.
But Khan is not business as usual for Pakistan.
He commands serious star power despite not belonging to the landed or industrial dynasties that have ruled the country since its birth in 1947. Nor is he part of the country's military, which has governed the Islamic Republic for more than three of its six and half decades. Instead, he shot to fame as a star of cricket, a game that has a near-religious following in Pakistan. On his way, he married - and divorced - glamorous British socialite Jemima Goldsmith.
He does not appear to court the traditional media, although it certainly chases him.
The waiting list for television anchors and reporters hoping to snag a one-on-one with Khan is around two months long. He has written-off Pakistan's rambunctious mainstream and privately owned media as "prone to being corrupt" and "marginal to vested interests."
So what is the secret to Khan's success in projecting his political agenda across Pakistan? In short, it's what he calls the "democratic and incorruptible" forces of Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media.
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