Happy Birthday Prime Minister Imran Khan

Muqadas Fatima

Introduction

Imran Khan (born Nov 25, 1952, in Lahore, Punjab) is a former Pakistani Captain who was indisputably the greatest cricketer to emerge from Pakistan. He played 88 Test matches and 175 One Day International matches for Pakistan.

Being the only son of his parents ─ and a brother to four sisters ─ he was often called arrogant ─ an accusation Khan has always denied.

In his early teens, he was considered a quiet and shy boy who often kept to himself. Even in school, he had a passion for cricket.

He hailed from a great cricketing family ─ his maternal cousins; Javed Burki and Majid Khan both preceded him in going to Oxford and captaining Pakistan.

Khan attended Aitchison College and the Cathedral School in Lahore. He then obtained admission at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before completing his education with an undergraduate degree in Economics from Keble College, Oxford University.

While there, he was also the captain of the Oxford University cricket team in 1974.

Imran Khan is widely regarded as the greatest and most flamboyant cricketer that Pakistan has ever produced and arguably the world’s second-best all-rounder to have graced the game after Sir Gary Sobers. He was tall, demure, handsome, and charismatic who dazzled the world with his amazing talent. He will also be remembered for his bold and inspirational captaincy that brought Pakistan into the limelight in the eighties and culminated in their winning the World Cup in 1992.

Following his actual retirement from cricket after the ’92 World Cup, Khan became an active philanthropist.

Imran Khan along with Sarfaraz Nawaz, made it fashionable to reverse swing the cricket ball in the 1980s. He was a dominant figure in Pakistani cricket that he could pick and choose who to play in the national side. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, two of the finest fast bowlers seen in the late 80s and 1990s were handpicked by him and groomed to play the role of strike bowlers for Pakistan. He nursed the national side and literally pushed youngsters like Inzamam-ul-Haq and others towards fame and fortune.

Following in the footsteps of his cousins, Khan started playing cricket at the age of 13.

Initially playing for his college and later representing English county Worcester, he made his debut for Pakistan at the age of 18 during the 1971 English series at Birmingham.

Soon, he had acquired a permanent place in the team for himself.

As a genuine all-rounder, Khan consistently made useful contributions in all forms of cricket with tremendous hard-hitting and swing abilities.

Khan achieved the all-rounder’s triple in 75 Tests and was known to make the second-fastest record after Ian Botham of the England cricket team.

His major teams were Pakistan, Dawood Club, Lahore, New South Wales, Oxford University, Pakistan International Airlines, Sussex and Worcestershire.

Awards and Accolades

    • The Cricket Society Wetherill Award for being the leading all-rounder in English first-class cricket: 1976 and 1980
    • Wisden Cricketer of the year: 1983
    • President’s Pride of Performance award: 1983
    • Sussex Cricket Society Player of the year: 1985
    • Indian Cricket Cricketer of the year: 1990
    • Victorious Captain of the Pakistan Team in World Cup: 1992
    • Pakistan’s most Prestigious award, Hilal-e-Imtiaz: 1992
    • Appointed as the fifth Chancellor of the University of Bradford, where he is also a patron of the Born in Bradford research project: 2005
    • Humanitarian Award at the Asian Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur for his efforts in setting up the first cancer hospital in Pakistan: 2007
    • Was one of several veteran Asian cricketers presented special silver jubilee awards at the inaugural Asian cricket Council (ACC) award ceremony in Karachi: 2008

Placed at Number 8 on the all-time list of the ESPN Legends of Cricket

  • 11 Man of the Match awards in Tests.
  • 8 Man of the Series awards in Tests.
  • 13 Man of the Match awards in ODIs.
  • Included in ICC Hall of Fame: 2009

Best Performances

  • 4 for 45, 4 for 35 and scored 39* v Australia, Lahore, 1982-83
  • 3 for 19 and 8 for 60 v India, Karachi, 1982-82
  • 6 for 98, 5 for 82 and scored 117 v India, Faisalabad, 1982-83
  • Scored 79* v New Zealand, Nottingham, 1983
  • 3 for 37 and 7 for 40 v England, Leeds, 1987
  • 7 for 80 and 4 for 41 v West Indies, Georgetown, 1987-88
  • 4 for 37 v England, Karachi, 1987-88
  • 2 for 42 and scored 67* v West Indies, Brisbane, 1988-89
  • Scored 60* v West Indies, Sharjah, 1989-90
  • 3 for 13 v Australia, Mumbai, 1989-90
  • Scored 84* v Sri Lanka, Lucknow, 1989-90
  • 3 for 47 and scored 55* v West Indies, Kolkata, 1989-90
  • 2 for 30 and scored 56* v Australia, Sydney, 1989-90
  • Scored 44* v Sri Lanka, Karachi, 1991-92

Imran and his Hospital

In his World Cup-winning speech, he said, “I am proud that in the twilight of my career I finally managed to win a World Cup and winning this World Cup I am sure will go a long way in helping complete one of my obsessions which is to build a cancer hospital”

This is then what he did; in order to fulfill his greatest obsession he went out to every street, every corner, every college, and school; not only of Pakistan but around the world. He focused his efforts solely on social work. By 1991, he had founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a charity organization bearing the name of his Mother, Mrs. Shaukat Khanum (who died of cancer).

Imran currently serves as the chairman of the hospital and continues to raise funds through charity and public donations. Princess of Wales Lady Diana also visited Lahore in 1996 in order to raise funds for the Cancer hospital.

As the Trust’s maiden endeavor, Imran established Pakistan’s first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding $25 million, raised by Imran Khan from all over the world. Inspired by the memory of his Mother, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, a charitable cancer hospital with 75 percent free care, opened in Lahore on 29 December 1994.

Khan, who was now 41, had begun to tone down his ‘playboy’ image. He had found a spiritual mentor in Mian Bashir, who by his own account — Pakistan: A Personal History — helped disarm a skeptical Jemima Goldsmith by accurately guessing her three secret wishes.

Jemima, the daughter of tycoon James Goldsmith, married Khan in Paris in 1995, at the age of 21.

The former PTI leader even alleged that senior party members had not been convinced that there had been rigging on a large scale in Punjab during the 2014 election, despite the PTI’s public stance during their historic sit-in the same year that large-scale election rigging had resulted in the party’s loss.

The allegations have never been substantiated with evidence.

Days after the sit-in, Khan married journalist Reham Khan at his Banigala residence on January 8, 2015, in a simple ceremony.

Khan married a third time in 2018 ─ to Bushra Bibi, his spiritual leader from Pakpattan who he had frequented for about two years ─ in a simple ceremony in Lahore.

Imran and Namal College

On 27 April 2008, Imran’s brainchild, a technical college in the Mianwali District called Namal College, was inaugurated. Namal College was built by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT), as chaired by Imran, and was made an associate college of the University of Bradford (of which Imran was a Chancellor) in December 2005. The college began its humble beginnings as a technical training and diploma awarding institute. Within this brief period, it now awards the University of Bradford undergraduate degrees to its students. It is an associate college of the University of Bradford, having also an advisory relationship with LUMS.

Imran and Politics

Imran entered electoral politics after a few years after the end of his professional cricketing career. Since then, his most significant political work has been to bring awareness of the lack of justice in Pakistan. Initially, Imran Khan’s politics were not taken seriously in Pakistan. However, his popularity has sharply risen, especially among women and the youth of Pakistan, after the repeated bad governance by the government and interference by the US.

On 25 April 1996, Khan founded his own political party called the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with a proposed slogan of “Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem.” Recently, Imran Khan has been the only politician who has responded to terrorism allegations on Pakistan. While Khan is viewed as a fundamentalist by some political circles, he has suggested solutions for helping US and NATO forces to fight terrorism while at the same time, not creating more terrorists in Pakistan.

While many people seem hopeless about Imran’s political victory in Pakistan, he has known to someone possessing a high level of determination and perseverance, as demonstrated by his cricket and philanthropic career. His political popularity is rising quickly in Pakistan and although the party has only one seat in 2002 elections and kept out of elections in 2008, resulting in no representation in Parliament, Imran Khan is considered as one of the four major political leaders in Pakistan, especially by mainstream media.

During a campaign rally in Lahore for the 2013 general election, Imran fell 14 feet as he was stepping off an improvised forklift. He was seen to be bleeding and unconscious with a gash on his head. He was then taken to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital where Imran was treated for two fractures to his spinal column. PTI won 33 seats as they emerged as the third-largest party in the country. Moreover, Imran’s PTI is the leading governing party in KPK.

Personal Information

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
Nickname: Favorite Son of Pakistan, Lion of Pakistan
Height: 1.85 CM

College: Aitchison College, Lahore – Royal Grammar School Worcester, England – University of Oxford, England
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm fast

Ex-Wives: Jemima Goldsmith and Reham Khan
Kids: Sulaiman and Kasim
Cousins (Cricketers): Javed Burki and Majid Khan

Toughest batsmen to bowl to Sir Vivian Richards and Sunil Gavaskar
Lowest moments in career: Shin injury and losing the World Cup Semi-Final in 1987 against Australia
Highest moments in career: Victory against Eng in Eng in 1987, leveling the series against WI in WI in 1988, WC 1992 Victory

Greatest regret: Not to have any brother
Saddest day: When his mother passed away
Happiest day: Opening of his Hospital

Prime Minister Imran Khan turned 68 today (October 5). The cricketer-turned-politician is now just two shy of becoming a septuagenarian.

As expected, the prime minister’s birthday was noticed far and wide on Twitter, with both his political supporters as well as his fans from his cricketing days wishing him well.

#HappyBirthdayPMImranKhan quickly became the number one Twitter trend in the country.

PM Imran’s cricketing confidante Javed Miandad was among the first ones to wish him, doing so almost as the date changed to October 5 in the wee hours of Monday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, whose patron-in-chief the prime minister is, was among the first cricketing bodies to wish him:

The International Cricket Council wasn’t far behind:

Former SAPM for Information and Broadcasting, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, did the same:

Indian sports writer Joy Bhattacharjya recalled what PM Imran’s greatest contribution to cricket was.

Pak Passion Editor Saj Sadiq described PM Imran as “the greatest ever Pakistani cricketer”.

Pakistani film star Shaan appeared to compare PM Imran to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as he wished him health and prosperity and power.

In a nutshell

Imran Khan was unarguably the greatest cricketer Pakistan ever produced and Imran Khan was arguably the greatest all-rounder since Sir Garry Sobers.

Thank you, Imran Khan, for your irreplaceable services for Pakistan Cricket. LEGEND!

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