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Recently former Pakistan cricket captain and stylish batsman, Aamir Sohail, announced that he was joining the PML-N. This is the first time that the moderate right-wing democratic party has attracted the attention of a known cricketer even though the lesser known Pervez Sajjad joined the party back in 1992. But Sohail is not the first Pakistani cricketer who has decided to take a plunge into politics.
Imran Khan is the most well known name in this respect, now heading his own (right-wing) political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). Though Khan was never before part of any other party, in the 1980s he was said to be close to the ‘Islamist’ Pakistani military dictator, Ziaul Haq – this, in spite of the fact that throughout his cricketing career Imran’s lifestyle was wholly modern and secular.
When he decided to retire from the game in 1987, it was left to Zia to coax him back; he then continued to play till 1992. The first high profile case of a well known former cricketer joining politics came in the shape of famous Pakistani cricket captain of the 1950s, Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Kardar joined the populist left-liberal party, the PPP, in the early 1970s and became very close to its chairman, Z. A. Bhutto. He was also made the President of the Pakistan cricket board.
Another popular cricketer to have had sympathies for the PPP was the great Javed Miandad, who did not join the party, but remained a supporter throughout his playing career (1976-96). In an interview he gave to a TV channel in 2004, he named Z.A. Bhutto as his favourite political personality. But Miandad’s case gets even more interesting when he was ‘owned’ by the MQM in the late 1980s for being from Karachi and a Mohajir. Miandad however never publicly declared his support for the MQM.
Eccentric fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz and former captain Mushtaq Muhammad were both known to be staunch supporters of the PPP in the 1970s and 1980s, but out of the two only Sarfraz joined the party (in 1987). He won a Punjab Assembly seat on a PPP ticket in the 1988 elections and was made a minister by the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
Legendary fast bowler, Wasim Akram, too has had a political past. In his 1993 biography, he proudly talks about taking part in pro-PPP rallies as a teenager that were held in Lahore against the hanging of Z A. Bhutto by the Zia dictatorship (1979). Though he never joined the party, Akram continued to be a PPP supporter in spite of his mentor, Imran Khan, being staunchly anti-PPP. Interestingly, Akram has always politely refused to join Khan’s party. Today he is largely apolitical.
Sarfraz remained with the PPP throughout the 1990s, but bailed out in the early 2000s only to resurface again in 2011 to join the secular and Mohajir-centric MQM (even though Sarfraz is a Punjabi). Perhaps the most fascinating case in this context is of former Pakistan Test cricketer, Aftab Gul, who was a member of PPP’s youth wing. Though Gul only played six Tests, he became famous in 1980 when the military regime of Ziaul Haq claimed to have found a string of missiles in his home in Lahore. The regime accused Gul of being a part of Murtaza Bhutto’s Al-Zulfikar terrorist organisation that was being funded by the Soviet-backed communist regime in Kabul. Gul escaped to London in 1982.
Tear-away fast bowler and controversial figure, Shoaib Akhtar, was also a PPP supporter in his teens, and some of his close associates believe that Akhtar may join this party if he ever decides to enter politics. Former captain and wicket-keeper, Rashid Latif, was a member of the MQM’s student-wing, the APMSO, in the 1980s and today is an active member of the MQM. Another wicket-keeper, Moin Khan, is also said to be close to the MQM.
However, the ‘party’ that most former as well as some playing cricketers joined is not a political party. It is the puritanical Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ) that, though largely evangelical in nature, has recently come under fire from some quarters for being a breeding ground of potential Islamists.
The Jamaat’s members include former players like Inzimamul Haq (even though his family was once PPP supporters in Multan in the 1970s); Muhammad Yusuf (converted from Christianity); Salman Butt, Saleem Malik , Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Saeed Ahmed. Waqar Younus too dabbled with the TJ in the early 2000s, but soon dropped out from the congregation.
The TJ’s biggest catch at the moment remains the dashing Shahid Afridi who in a 2005 interview thanked the TJ for saving him from the kind of ‘immoral’ lifesyle he was leading before 2005. It is also interesting to note that almost all of the TJ cricketers have either faced bans for match/spot-fixing (Salman Butt, Saleem Malik) or were heavily fined (in 1999) for concealing information against the match-fixers (Inzimam, Mushtaq, Saeed Anwar, Afridi).
Political parties now most attractive to political-minded cricketers are the PML-N (just as the PPP was in the 1970s and ‘80s), and the MQM. Surprisingly, though, very few cricketers have volunteered to join Imran’s PTI.
