AS IT TURNED out, the just-concluded general election in Pakistan was somewhat like the country itself—rancorous, disorderly, violent, suspicious, but still chugging along on some complex force that few can understand. It is in this environment that Imran Khan, who once was thought to be the symbol of progressive reform in a society increasingly getting ossified, has finally come within striking distance of the crown. But in that spread between his floating of the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) in 1996 and now, 22 years later, Khan himself has become the Establishment Man: who twirls a rosary in his hand because if you looked at his past, there wasn’t much religion there, and therefore his new-found credentials need to be relentlessly reinforced; who promised a liberal anti-corruption revolution, and now stands accused…