IMRAN versus IMRAN: Frank Huzur
Having enjoyed the luxuries of enthralling hundreds of thousands of spectators in cricket stadiums all over the world, he was asking himself, "why should I stay away from the charging crowd?" Grandstanding was yet not his second skin. He was becoming more convinced that politics on his home turf was more like wrestling, especially in carnivals where one can test one's dramatic instincts.
In summer of 1996 when Imran Khan slipped into a politician's attire, he was hailed as the agent of change. A decade later when he is on the verge of adulthood in his political innings, he is revered and reviled alike for being one of few honest political animals in his battered homeland as he is ridiculed for his off-and-on tryst with night-out in some of world's glitzy hotspots.
From a green horn student of politics and economics to chancellor of Bradford University, from a world-cup winning captain of Pakistan cricket team to building a Poor Man's gold (Pakistan's largest cancer hospital in memoriam of his mother, Shaukat Khanum) and founding a fledgling political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), the four-decade old journey of Imran has been a saga of sacrifice, struggle and swashbuckle. Yet, he remains an enigma to his political opponents.
Some call him the 'Poppy Prince' of General Zia-ul-Haq, others mince no words in rubbishing him as a 'handsome Taliban apologist.'
The hardliners, Islamist radicals in his own backyards. curse him for his adulterous, fornicating past. In stark contrast, the youth of modern Pakistan hail him as Che Guevara. He doesn't disappoint them in his raging bull-like political rhetoric and firepower speeches. lmran Khan promises them 'revolution' never before seen on the soil of his nation. For hundreds of thousands of conscience keeper, he disappoints just as a fuddy-duddy would and they raise their fingers at his failure to keep Jemima Khan, ex-wife and mother of two sons" in matrimonial bliss.
He is still as much feared on political pitch as he had been in his cricketing heydays. Can he become the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan sometime in future? Is he the sleeping Prophet for much betrayed people of Pakistan? Why the man who once ruled the 22 yard pitch continues to inspire hopes in spite of repeated rumblings at the hustings in Pakistan, a country whose tryst with democracy has actually been a cloak and dagger game.
Imran Versus Imran: The Untold story is a political account of Pakistan's most flamboyant figure, a proclaimed Casanova Royale and the Clairvoyant, pregnant with unobtrusive inquiries into hitherto unknown sides of lmran, the Enigma.
THE PEACE PIPER: Dr Khurshid Ahmed, CBE
Frank Huzur
The Peace-Piper: Dr. Khurshid Ahmed is a definitive biography of a seasoned peace campaigner, a compulsive dreamer of peace, a man who sold his soul to peace bazaar. Out of compulsions and out of choice! His is an interesting saga in the past four decades, of hope, reason, fear, betrayal, triumph, joy, trials and tribulations.
Dr. K was a youngling all of 11 years of age when he set his foot on the British soil. From Balah in Azad Kashmir of Pakistan to Birmingham, he has scripted a new chapter in bringing glory to the pious pillar of peace and harmony.
Mr. Ahmed doesn't smoke nicotine, he only smokes pipe of peace. In the aftermath of 9//11 and 7/7 terror storms, this diminutive, sharp lip-shooter had an irresistible challenge on his hands to ride it out, to bridge the deepening divide of trust and confidence between Muslims and the West.
From coveted world leaders like Nelson Mandela to Tony Blair, Mr Ahmed has been trusted for his inimitable instincts. He believes just because the monkey is off your back, it doesn't mean the circus has left the town. The fight for peace is as long as the preparation of war.
The readers will have an absorbing ride through hilly meadows of Balah and Mirpur in Azad Kashmir to streets and bazaars of Lahore, Islamabad and Muzzafarabad to sleek streets of London, Birmingham and scores of European hotspots and fields and trenches where Dr. K will be fighting out his battle for peace and joy. Special picture gallery will toss up
some delightful nuggets of Dr. K life and times
The Authors
Frank Huzur
