Making Afridi nazim: Are cricketers our only hope?

If a cricketer is the only real hero left then maybe there is only one real solution... vote for him?

Maha Amin November 04, 2010
A recent letter to the editor in a newspaper suggested that Shahid Afridi be made the nazim of Karachi because:
“(he) is a proud son of Karachi and is a typical Karachiite. He would make a great Karachi nazim too as and when he chooses to retire. He will also help defuse the unrealistic ethnic tensions.”

I will not refute this gentleman’s opinion but am forced to wonder at the serious dearth of options in the country that have led him to this conclusion.

Regardless of Afridi’s rash shots which can either lead to a boundary or being dismissed, I am a fan and admire him for stepping down as captain of Pakistan’s test team when he thought he couldn’t do it. And despite his strange ‘ball biting’ incident I believe he is an individual who plays for his country. But at the end of the day, Boom Boom Afridi is a cricketer and not an administrator.

Currently, it is difficult enough for him to be the captain and strategise about team placing and not bow under pressure. Imagining him as the mayor of a city of 18 million – a population larger than many countries of the world, is difficult to comprehend.

But the question remains, who else is there? As I mentioned earlier, Afridi is a hero for many and sadly, the number of heroes we have can be counted on one hand.

We’re all searching for someone to lead us out of the pothole we find ourselves in. Suicide bombs, target killings, electrocutions, fires have all become day to day problems and it seems silly to even think of broken roads and power shortages in summer as issues anymore.

So if dil ka acha is what’s required then who knows, maybe Afridi will become nazim one day. And perhaps Aisamul Haq will become president.
WRITTEN BY:
Maha Amin A LUMS graduate working as a sub-editor on the Life & Style pages of The Express Tribune.
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (12)

Ali Tabish | 13 years ago | Reply love the last line!
Farhan Aleem | 13 years ago | Reply I adore you Maha & also welcoming the Afridi as Nazim but this time of embarrassment he could bite the nation like a ball what he done in Australia’s series.
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