Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Plans to invite foreign dignitaries, including some of India’s greatest cricketers, to Imran Khan’s impending inauguration as Prime Minister of Pakistan have been shelved. Fawad Chaudhry, the spokesperson for the party Imran heads, said Thursday that Imran had ultimately decided on a “simple ceremony” that would include just a few of his close friends. That was a 24-hour turnaround in which Imran’s party had first floated the tantalising possibility of the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev flying in for the inauguration. Chaudhry had confirmed to media that enquiries had been made of the Foreign Office to see if foreign delegates could be invited to the oath-taking ceremony. Those in line for invitations to the event included Gavaskar and Kapil, contemporaries of Imran in his cricketing heyday, as well as Navjot Sidhu. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also in the frame for an invitation, but the change of stance yesterday means those high-profile guests from across the border will not attend.

“The PTI chairman has directed us to stage the oath-taking event with austerity,” Fawad said. “He will take his oath in a simple ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr (President House). It has been decided that no foreign personalities will be invited to the ceremony – it will be a completely national event. Only a few close friends of Imran Khan will be invited. There will be no show of extravagance at the event.” Imran, whose party the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the most seats in the country’s general elections last week, is effectively Pakistan’s Prime Minister-elect, with his inauguration likely to be days away. His decision to invite cricketers who were among the biggest rivals of his career appeared to be, prima facie, an extension of the agreeable tone he struck towards India in his unofficial acceptance speech following the elections. Imran has enjoyed convivial relations with most of his contemporaries across the border. When he was an opposition leader in Pakistan’s parliament in 2016, he was a high-profile attendee in Kolkata for the India-Pakistan game at the World T20, and was part of an entertaining evening after-dinner talk on a panel that also included Kapil. The pair were two of the great quartet of allrounders that dominated the game in the 1980s, alongside Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee.

Published in Daily Times, August 3^rd 2018.