To many, a mere comedic comparison between the new Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan Imran Khan & President of the United States Donal J. Trump may not register as a big issue, but the false and lazy attempt to establish correlation between the two unsettles those who understand the misconceptions & minacious trends this kind of generalization causes. Many in US may not know briefly who Imran Khan is, let alone his 22 years of struggle for accountability. Thus when a prime time late night host basically tells his audience “You know Trump? yeah he is like him. Moving on……” all of those people and the millions watching will now, instead of doing own research, will write IK off as a carbon copy of their own worst nightmare aka Trump. Considering the current bilateral relations, US- Pakistan dont need more misconceptions.

Americans are already not famous for having a sane view on world politics as many like Trevor think US is the center of the universe aka American exceptionalism. E.g Trevor thinks people are rebooting Trump in other countries. With All due respect, calm down, the world doesn’t hold your political discourse in that high of a regard.

Yes, there might be some coincidences between the two, like three marriages, but there are far more actual differences.

Les first analyse Trevor Noah’s critique of PMImran Khan.

1: He lives like a King

He did. Which superstar at the top of his sports career doesn’t. But as a leader Imran Khan refused to live in the gigantic PM house to promote austerity among the ranks. PM has 30 armored cars, he has decided to auction all but two. Pakistan’s Trump label needs to be given to Sharif’s or Zardaris who still live in multi million dollar palaces and 50 vehicle motorcades.

2: Zero experience in government

Completely false. This just poor research. Imran Khan has been in politics for 22 years and has been a member of parliament multiple times. His party PTI ruled for 5 years (2013-18) in restive Khyber Pakhunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

3: Imran khan and Trump were both in ads

Really? A national superstar, a world cup winning athlete is not going to do any ads? Really? One guy asks others to put him in their movies and commercials, the other guy is Imran Khan, who everyone wanted as their brand ambassador. Missed the nuance there Trevor.

4: Sexual Harassment

Even though the woman who alleged the harassment claimed she had digital evidence, she has never brought them forward to the media let alone filing a police case. Considering the fact the Imran Khan had a flamboyant past, i am still amazed why there are zero sexual harassment cases against him. While Donald Trump admitted sexual harassment on Billy Bush’s Tv show.

5: Angry Supporters

Thats mostly true. As one of his supporter i admit Insafians are like angry Bernie bros, very angry Bernie bros. But when you consider the fact that they are part of political atmosphere where other party has literal target killers, gang leaders and mob bosses, they seem like saints. PTI is the only mainstream party that never had a militant wing. PMLN has its Gullu Butts, PPP had its Aman committee. MQM, well people are still debating whether Altaf Hussain’s MQM was a political party or south asia biggest death squad. AH would issue death threats on live TV.

Mean while Trump’s supporters represent the most violent and sinister side of american political discourse, like MQM did once in Pakistan. Heil!

6: He behaves like a Rockstar

Well, thats because he is. As long as he doesn’t use my tax money to be a rock star, i am cool with it. Deal with it!

7: Trump’s phrases.

Again, thats that American exceptionalism speaking. These are Imran Khan words that Trump might have been using. Imran has been campaigning against corruption since 1996. Watch any of his pre Trump speeches. In short, do you research mate.

Programs like Daily show, even though satire, owe it to their viewers to provide objectivity and facts. Comedy at the expense of these two factors is basically an Alex Jones show minus the screaming. The legendary Jon stewart mastered this art, this balance.

Lets cut to the chase. Here are few other reasons why Imran Khan is not only different then President of the United States Donald Trump but almost the polar opposite.

Background

Donald trump started his empire with “a small loan of a million dollars”. Basically he owes everything to his billionaire father & the inheritance he received. Still went bankrupt multiple times.

On the other hand Imran Khan is a self made man. He was from a upper middle class family. Father was a civil servant. Everything he has, he achieved it through his own grit and sweat over are sports and political career that spans across 50 years.

Nepotism

Donald Trump is a either paranoid or just straight up dictatorial given the fact that he entrusts some of the most important jobs to his own family members. E,g. Trump charged his son in law Jared Kushner with brokering peace in middle east, reforming criminal justice system & revamping the federal govt, To the insafians who think i am not joking. i am not. Look it up.

While PM Imran Khan who formed a provincial govt in 2013, two provincial govts and the federal govt in 2018 has awarded ZERO ministries to his family members. He even has not granted any of them a position in his PTI party. This in a country where political parties have nothing to do with ideologies, values & morals but are family run affairs.

Conflict Of Interest

Trump like Nawaz Sharif, has billions worth of properties and business interests abroad. Some thing you and your friends criticize him for.

Imran Khan once had an apartment in UK. He sold it and bought his Islamabad banigala home.

Relations with security apparatus

Trump is at loggerheads with own security and intelligence establishment for investigating his ‘Russia connection’ and is seen as Putin’s man.

Even though Imran has was jailed by military dictator Musharraf in 2000s and the fact that he has opposed most of military operations. Imran has been accused of being supported by own security and intelligence establishment.

Political Career

Donald Trump is a one hit wonder with a very short political career before he was elected President. What even is Trump’s politics? A wall? He basically hijacked an already established party and voter base.

Imran made his own base. He campaigned for accountability for 22 long years before he was elected Prime Minister. He had everything. Fame. Respect. Money. but he sacrificed everything, his first marriage, a stable family, got thrown out of universities by political opponents, was thrown into jail, protested for months on end on roads, was ridiculed as a nobody, was declared Taliban Khan for protesting against drone strikes. Still he didn’t not give up. He kept his promise “Na khud jhookun ga, Na apni qom ko jhukne dun ga” (i will not capitulate, nor will i let my nation capitulate) in front of the mafias that looted Pakistan to such an extent that we might go bankrupt in three months if IMF doesn’t grant us a 12 billion dollar loan. Ahem. Got emotional there for a bit. Sorry. Pashtun and all. What sacrifices has Trump made. What stands has he taken?

Ego & self sponsorship

Probably nothing explains how massive is Trump’s ego than the fact the massive Trump sign on Trump towers. “The greatest Job’s president” boasts about himself almost everyday.

Imran Khan’s on other hand named one of his greatest feat, building a charity cancer hospital, after her mother instead of himself. He does not go around the country naming development projects after himself like our other politicians. He knows he doesn’t need his name plastered on every new school built in KPK, he has already ingrained his name in to the Pakistani youth’s psyche. Something Donald Trump will never be able to do. Bernie did, almost.

Racism

If there is one quality of the US president that everyone around the world know is that Trump is racist, diet Katie Hopkins to be honest. He declared most mexicans rapists, he put mexican children in concentrations camps and invoked a semi Muslim ban.

Imran Khan on other hand is the only mainstream politician in Pakistan that does not cater to ethno nationalism. His main rival, PMLN raised Jaag Punjabi Jaag (Punjabi nationalism) while PPP has from time to time banked on sindhi nationalism to secure few extra seats at the national assembly (marsu marsu sindh na daison). ANP, MQM, PkMAP etc are overtly race based parties.

Even though Imran Khan may not reverse Pakistan’s border fencing at the Afghan border considering the very real threat of cross border terror, he still expressed his hope for bilateral relations so strong that we not need such contraptions and talked of open borders. Seems far fetched for now but the intention matters.

Climate Change

Trump unfortunately is among the very few world leaders that does not believe in climate change, as evident from US polling out of Paris accords.

On the other hand Imran is an environmentalist. His billion tree tsunami afforestation project in KPK is one of its kind in the region. He focused on climate change in his first address to the nation few hours ago. In a country with less than 4% forest cover, it is a big issue for us.

Charities

Like most big personalities Donal Trump has his own charities, but has been using it as a “piggy bank” to pay off golf debts.

While US banks dont want to loan Trump more money as he keeps declaring bankruptcy, Imran Khan can raise millions of dollars in couple of days because the people know their money will not be spent on getting a golf course for Imran Khan. Around 90% od students in Imran Khan’s Namal college are financially supported. Mean while Trump university is defunct.

Corruption

Even Imran Khan’s worst critics will grant him that he is clean. And that is what Imran Khan is all about. He has been a cricket star for decades. A member of parliament multiple of times. Provincial govt from 2013-2018. Zero financial irregularities scandals.

Meanwhile almost every other day there are whistle blowers in Trump’s own administration talking of massive corruption and misuse and while threats of impeachment hangs like a sword on Trump’s head. Not to mention he owes people “billions and billions”

Fear and Warmongering

Donald Trump’s entire politics is based on fear mongering. The “threat of the other”. Mexicans, muslims, blacks etc. From time to time he threatens other nations on twitter with caps lock on, three in the morning, some of them nuclear armed. He thinks bombing every problem to oblivians works. One of the reason he MOABed our neighbor Afghanistan.

Meanwhile Imran Khan in his first speech after the poll results came in, talked of peace in Afghanistan & peace with arch rival India. He literally said that “if India takes one step towards us, we will take two steps towards them”. He offered mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resolve differences between the two countries. Imran is a peacemaker while war is itching for a war.

One can literally go on for hours on this topic on how ridiculous the comparison is. As i was writing this, Imran Khan made his first address as the Prime minister of Pakistan. He talked about climate change, he talked about malnourished children, about overseas Pakistanis, about austerity, about his ‘brutal accountability’ campaign, the economy, the money laundering, tourism , the schools, peace with neighbors. Tax, health, education and police reforms and countless other issues in his 1 hour address. Something your Donald Trump cant achieve in his limited vocabulary. So i ask you Trevor Noah and other naysayers, our Kaptaan is a leader who has been preparing for this for almost a quarter of a century, what is yours.