IM-MEDIATELY after the polls, the party’s im-andar and im-mensely talented cadres will im-merse themselves in working for the im-plementation of the pr-im-e minister’s programme…. If this is an impolite implosion, it has been motivated by the dream itself. The speech on Sunday sounded like another lesson in faith: ‘I am, therefore, you will’, Imran Khan promised the people. After the Minar-i-Pakistan victory eight days earlier, the surprise lay not in the exhibition of his growing belief in himself but in the sign-watchers missing an important omen for ultimate victory: the venue for the latest jalsa by the skipper in Mingora, called the Grassy Ground. They listened attentively as their leader told them that a dream doesn’t quite remain a dream once he sees it. At the age of nine, he imagined himself playing for Pakistan and a decade later, he was rubbing shoulders with national cricketers on a tour of England. He next saw himself lifting the World Cup, a wish that was realised in 1992. Then the cancer hospital was achieved as it was visualised. Given this record and the trajectory of his current thoughts, he had to now quite naturally look for a dream that predicted a sweeping election victory for his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Even to the most imaginative mind, not all things come in a dream. Small details have still to be sorted out — for instance the selection of a dream team that can realise the vision. Here again Imran Khan has come to his own rescue. But as he vows he will — himself — fix the list of the PTI poll candidates, he appears to be threatening to over-apply himself as the answer to every question. He needs partners and cannot bowl from both ends at the same time.