Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, former international cricket player, author, and the chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. As of 27th July, 2018, he is the leading candidate to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was formerly the captain of the Pakistani Cricket Team and led his country to victory in the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand.
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Early Life and Education
Khan was born on 5 October 1952 in Lahore, Pakistan. As per reports, the officials of Pakistan Cricket Board had incorrectly mentioned his birth date on his passport to be 25 November 1952. His father Ikramullah Khan Niazi was a civil engineer and he had an upper-middle class upbringing along with his four sisters.
Imran went to Lahore’s Aitchison College and later attended the Royal Grammar School Worcester located in England. He began playing cricket for his college when he was 13 years old. He enrolled at Oxford’s Keble College in 1972 and graduated with honors in politics, philosophy, and economics in 1975. In 2012, the Royal College of Physicians gave him an honorary fellowship.
Imran Khan – Young Pictures
Cricketing Career of Imran Khan
After playing for college, Khan played cricket for the Worcestershire Cricket Club. At age 16, he made his first class debut. Since then he played for many teams like Lahore, Lahore A, Lahore Greens, Lahore B, Blues Cricket team of University of Oxford, Dawood Industries, Sussex, and Pakistan International Airlines.
Imran made his international Test debut as an 18 year old against England at Edgbaston in 1971. He made his One Day International debut in 1974 at Trent Bridge against England. After completing his studies, he returned to Pakistan and became a permanent member of the Pakistani Cricket Team. In 1978, during a fast bowling competition held at Perth, Australia, Khan bowled at speeds of nearly 140 km/h and came third behind Jeff Thomson and West Indian bowler Michael Holding. He thus gained reputation as one of the fastest bowlers in the world. He reached the peak of his bowling career in 1982-83.
Khan was appointed as the captain of the Pakistani Cricket Team in 1982. He captained the country for 48 test matches and 139 ODIs and had a win percentage of over 60%. He retired from international cricket after the 1987 World Cup. He was however asked to take over the captaincy by Pakistani President General Zia-Ul-Haq in 1988 and he rejoined the cricket team. In 1992, he led the team to its only World Cup victory and then retired from all forms of cricket.
He reached the milestone of 300 wickets and 3000 runs in Test cricket after playing 75 tests. He played 88 tests in total, took 362 wickets and made 3807 runs. He got inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.
After retirement, Khan had been a regular cricket commentator and has also written many opinion pieces for several newspapers and magazines.
Political career
Khan found the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) political party in 1996. He contested the 1997 Pakistani general elections and ran for National Assembly from 2 constituencies, but lost both.
He took part in the 2002 general elections and won from Mianwali. As a Member of the National Assembly, he served on Standing Committees for Public Accounts and Kashmir. Khan was put under house arrest by President Musharraf in 2007, but he escaped. He was later arrested and jailed for a few days. As part of the 2013 general elections, he launched his ‘Naya Pakistan Resolution.’ PTI did not win the elections and Khan refused to form a coalition government with the PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) political party. He however was elected to the National Assembly from Rawalpindi. The PTI won 30 parliamentary seats and the party became the 2nd largest party in terms of popular vote. It also became the opposition party in Sindh and Punjab. He subsequently became his party’s parliamentary leader. The PTI also won the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and formed the government there.
As of 27th July, 2018, the PTI was leading in more than 100 seats in the 2018 general elections in Pakistan. The PTI is thus poised to become the single largest party in the country. There have been allegations that the elections were rigged by the military and the judiciary in favor of PTI to prevent Nawaz Sharif and his party PML-N from coming back to power. These allegations have been dismissed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Philanthropy
Khan established the charity organization, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, in 1991 and began fundraising for construction of a cancer hospital. He raised more than $25 million and soon constructed the hospital in Lahore in the memory of his late mother. He set up a second hospital in 2015 in Peshawar. From 2005 to 2014, he served as Bradford University chancellor. During the 90s, he was also a Special Representative for Sports for UNICEF and promoted immunization and health programs. In 2008, Khan set up a technical college called Namal College in Mianwali District, Pakistan.
The Imran Khan Foundation also does charity work. It has provided flood relief assistance in different countries, helped in electrification of many rural areas, and continues to work towards establishing many off-grid Solar Charging Stations and donating solar lanterns.
Personal Life
- As a young bachelor, Khan was known to be a playboy who liked and actively sought the pleasures of life. He was a regular at the nightclubs of London. Khan has however claimed that he never consumed alcohol and hated English pubs. He has also stated that he has never claimed that he had an angelic lifestyle.
- Khan was allegedly in a relationship with Sita White, heiress and daughter of British businessman and Baron White of Hull, Gordon White. They met in 1987 or 1988 and were in a relationship for around 6 years. The couple had a lovechild ‘Tyrian-Jade White’ in 1992. Khan has however denied his paternity and refused to accept the child as his daughter.
- Imran Khan married heiress Jemima Goldsmith in May 1995. She was 22 years younger than him. They wed in Paris in a short ceremony and had a civil ceremony in England a month later. Jemima became a Muslim after marriage to Khan. The couple has two sons named Sulaiman Isa Khan and Qasim Khan. They divorced in 2004 as Jemima was unable to adapt to a Pakistani life.
- Khan married for the second time in 2014. He wed Reham Khan a British-Pakistani journalist in Islamabad in a private nikah at his home. They divorced in 2015.
- In 2018, Reham authored a book that revealed details about the alleged activities of Imran Khan and others, which ranged from se**al misconduct and se**al acts to political intimidation and conspiracy.
- Khan married Bushra Manika, his spiritual advisor in February 2018. It is alleged that he had married her as far back as mid 2016. But the PTI has claimed that the two wed in February 2018 and not before that.
Imran Khan – Wife and Ex Wives, Girlfriend (Pictures)
with Sita White
with Jemima Goldsmith
with Reham Khan
wife Bushra Maneka
Imran Khan – Net Worth and House
- Khan has a net worth of Rs. 1.4 billion or US $13 million as of 2017. If he becomes the Prime Minister of Pakistan, then he will receive an annual basic salary of Rs. 1, 7000,280 plus incentives.
- He has investments in numerous businesses totaling to over Rs. 40 million or US $ 380,000. Despite his wealth, he does not have a motor vehicle registered in his name.
- Khan lives in a big bungalow at Bani Gala in Islamabad. The property is spread across 300 kanal (1, 50,000 square meters) and is valued at Rs. 750 million or over US $ 7 million.
- He also owns a house in Lahore at Zaman Park. It is valued at Rs. 29 million of US $ 270,000.
- Khan was given the president’s Pride of Performance award in 1983. The Government of Pakistan bestowed the second highest civilian honor and award, i.e., the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, in 1992.
- He has authored 6 non-fiction books, one of which is an autobiography.
