IMRAN KHAN MYTH OF THE PAKISTANI MIDDLE-CLASS

During last decade’s upsurge in the fortunes of populist politics in numerous countries, Imran Khan emerged as its central figure in Pakistan. Globally, Khan never became as prominent in this context as his populist contemporaries such as Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, Boris Johnson and Viktor Orbán. But he was very much a product of the populist wave that began to sweep across various regions from 2010 onwards. In Imran Khan: Myth of the Pakistani Middle-Class, Nadeem Farooq Paracha explores the political, social and historical factors that led to Khan’s rise and his eventful fall as a politician. In so doing, Paracha also scrutinises the political and social dynamics of Khan’s core constituency, the urban middle-classes. He demonstrates how these classes have continued to sabotage their own political interests due to their stubborn search for ‘strongme.