DISPATCHES named Louis remote-controlled the dollies along a roadway of foot-thick interlocking wooden planks that work- ers with forklifts picked up as soon as the building passed over and carried around to the front of the convoy, until the whole procession had traveled the length of two and a half football fields. Since Katrina, New Orleanians have gotten used to things disappearing— homes, schools, businesses, housing proj- ects, neighborhoods. But ultimately we carry within us the apparatus for preserv- ing what we really want to preserve. Sam Morse will keep returning to the shotgun on Palmyra Street, to the hamburger joint his dad would treat him to after late- night asthma scares at Charity Hospital. Anita's Diner, whose window frames the new view of McDonogh No. 11, retains a warm network of regulars, newcomers, and longtime employees. If you're enjoy- ing a bowl of butter-swamped grits and ask about the old-school R&B playing from a boom box, Dwana, who's worked there for more than 20 years, will ex- plain it's from a CD burned for the diner by the cook's sister, and will give you a The charismatic KHan was once linked to noiiywooa actresses like Goldie Hawn. copy if she has an extra. Dwana seems unfazed by the accel- political nobody looking for a big favor elections and supported Bhutto's party, erated urban morphing she's witnessed from Washington. led by her widower, Asif Zardari, who from the diner's window, shift after In January 2008, the onetime cricket became president. shift, year after year. She just hopes the superstar turned lackluster politician That Washington had little use for new hospital will create jobs and help visited the United States to discuss Khan's advice was not a surprise; at residents of the surrounding neighbor- Pakistan's future. One of the bloodiest home he was considered a political hoods. She points past McDonogh No. 11, years in memory had just culminated in lightweight, and on Capitol Hill, if he poised on its blue steel dollies and ready the assassination of former Prime Min- was known at all, it was likely as a ca- for its next move, to show me an empty ister Benazir Bhutto; President Pervez rousing cricket champion who starred hotel the state plans to implode. Even if Musharraf, the military leader and an on the Oxford Blues and then, through- it's her day off, she says, she wants to be American ally, clung uneasily to power. out the 1980s, captained Pakistan's na- at Anita's to watch it come dow^n. El Elections were approaching, and Khan's tional team. Christened the "Lion of mission was to implore the foreign- Pakistan," he used to prowl London's Anne Gisleson is a writer who teaches at the New policy heavyweights who would meet West End nightclub circuit with his Orleans Center for Creative Arts. with him—Senators Joe Biden and rugged good looks and flowing mane. John Kerry among them—to keep the Dressed in a sharp suit—or shirtless U.S. on the sidelines. Validating elec- if the occasion allowed—the playboy SECOND ACTS tions held under Musharraf would be was spotted with an endless string of a mistake, he said. American intrusion glitzy British socialites. Gossip columns would only aggravate an already tense linked him to actresses like Goldie The Playboy situation. "I came to warn them: don't Hawn and Elizabeth Hurley (he later A FORMER CRICKET STAR MAY back [the candidacy of] any individual," married Jemima Goldsmith, a young BECOME PAKISTAN'S NEXT Khan told me in New York City, two heiress to a British fortune). When he RULER. days after the meeting, with a hint of beat England in his last match, win- By Shahan Mufti desperation in his voice. "Any govern- ning the 1992 World Cup finals. Khan ^ BEFORE BECOMING the most pop- ment that will deal with terrorism has became something of a demigod. o ular politician in Pakistan—before the to be credible, and a government that The stunning political success he Í record-size rallies and the odds-on bets is backed by the Americans will lose now enjoys was harder-won—this de- j that the upcoming elections will make all credibility." Khan was unpersuasive. spite the fact that Khan was courted for s him prime minister—Imran Khan was a The Bush administration backed the office even before he ended his cricket S 20 APRIL 2012 THE ATLANTIC DISPATCHES careen More recently, Musharraf of- But despite the image he enjoys as SOVEREIGNTY fered to install him as prime minister. an anti-American Islamist, Washing- Khan has claimed. But he had always ton doesn't view Khan as unreasonable. The Royal Me wanted more than a title. "Going into "We know that he opposes some Ameri- politics and starting a movement for can policies," an official at the U.S. Em- WHAT'S WITH AUSTRALIA'S SECESSION OBSESSION? reform are two different things," Khan bassy in Islamabad told me, but "he's By Matt Siegel told the British newspaper The Guard- been balanced, and expressed where ian in 1996. That year, he launched the he would like to see changes." ONE DOESN'T EXPECT one's first Pakistan Movement for Justice, a po- Indeed, Khan might be able to offer brush with royalty to take place in a litical party determined to create, as the U.S. something no one else in Paki- food court. Yet here I am, sitting in a its founding charter stated, an "Islamic stan has: a path out of Afghanistan. Sec- sticky pleather booth at a Sydney shop- welfare state." He had by then fashioned retary of State Hillary Clinton recently ping mall with Princess Helena, a quiet, a second incarnation as a philanthropist, suggested that Pakistan should take a matronly woman in her mid-60s, and traveling the country collecting money lead in talking with the Taliban. Khan her emphatic, 40-something daughter. out of the back of a truck to build a hos- agrees, and as a tribal Pashtun with Princess Paula. Helena sips hot choco- pital offering free care to poor cancer ancestral roots in South Waziristan, late regally, as Paula holds forth on patients. But while his welfare-minded he could be particularly helpful in topics as varied as her correspondence party repeatedly entered elections, it this sort of dialogue. "It should be the with Queen Elizabeth and the finer never won more than one politicians in Pakistan who points of the Montevideo Convention seat in the Pakistani parlia- now should be moving in," of 1933. The man evidently in charge of ment. "Im the dim," as some he told me, "not only to their security, a dour fellow with heav- in Pakistan called him, was deal with our own tribal ily pomaded hair, who goes by the name dismissed as politically areas but to help America Karl, sits perched between them and inept and unelectable. To with a political settlement the doorway. the liberals worried about and exit strategy." After a few minutes of pleasant- his anti-American rhetoric, These days. Khan ries and more hot chocolate, I fold he was "Taliban without a doesn't fiy to Capitol Hill; my hands on the table and delicately beard"; religious conser- Americans are seeking him broach the topic that has brought us vatives abhorred his play- out. A few weeks afrer the here: Why do these two women believe boy past and maligned his British wife, Lahore rally, a delegation including the that they are no longer subject to the whom he divorced in 2004. U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron laws of Australia? But lately, everything has changed. Munter, paid him a visit at his offices in "At the moment, there are 193 mem- Caught for years in a whirl of guer- a leafy section of Islamabad. Khan had ber nations of the UN," Princess Paula rilla war and dysfunctional govern- been anxious to leave for Khanpur, a explains. "I would say that the majority ment, huge numbers of Pakistanis are small town two hours to the northwest, of those have been formed by secession now seizing on Khan's populist brand where he was due to speak at a rally. The from some country or other." As proof of political Islam and his demands for Americans were making him late. Afrer of her own nation's rightful sovereignty, an independent judiciary. In advance Khan finally left his guests at the front she pulls out land deeds, court docu- of elections expected later this year, door, with smiles and handshakes, he ments, and Christmas cards from for- he's suddenly drawing historic crowds. flashed a naughty grin. "They couldn't eign leaders. "The U.S., as you well know, One rally held in Lahore last October get enough of me, I guess." seceded from England in 1776," she says. brougbt out more than 100,000 people, When Khan arrived at the rally, an- "It's a remedial right, a last resort." shocking Khan's rivals and helping him other enormous throng greeted him. This is probably a good place to back convert a slew of new political allies. Wide-eyed young men pointed camera up and explain tbat few, if any, people Khan's sudden popularity also owes phones at him, screaming out his name. outside the food court believe Princess something to his biting criticism of the Scanning the crowd before taking the Helena and Princess Paula to be royalty United States. As a virulent campaigner stage.