Foreign relations

In foreign relations, he dealt with border skirmishes against India, strengthened relations with China and Russia, while relations with the United States cooled. In 2010, Khan said in an interview: "I grew up hating India because I grew up in Lahore and there were massacres of 1947, so much bloodshed and anger. But as I started touring India, I got such love and friendship there that all this disappeared." Khan views the Kashmir issue as a humanitarian issue, as opposed to a territorial dispute between two countries (India and Pakistan). He also proposed secret talks to settle the issue as he thinks the vested interests on both sides will try to subvert them. He ruled out a military solution to the conflict and denied the possibility of a fourth war between India and Pakistan over the disputed mountainous region.

Khan publicly demanded a Pakistani apology towards the Bangladeshi people for the atrocities committed in 1971. He called the 1971 operation a "blunder" and likened it to today's treatment of Pashtuns in the war on terror. He repeatedly criticised the war crimes trials in Bangladesh in favour of the convicts. In August 2012, the Pakistani Taliban issued death threats if he went ahead with his march to their tribal stronghold along the Afghan border to protest US drone attacks, because he calls himself a "liberal" – a term they associate with a lack of religious belief. On 1 October 2012, prior to his plan to address a rally in South Waziristan, senior commanders of Pakistani Taliban said after a meeting headed by the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud that they now offered Khan security assistance for the rally because of Khan's opposition to drone attacks in Pakistan, reversing their previous stance.

His sympathetic position toward the Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban, as well as his criticism of the US-led war on terror, has earned him the moniker "Taliban Khan" in Pakistani politics. He believes in negotiations with Taliban and the pull out of the Pakistan Army from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He is against US drone strikes and plans to disengage Pakistan from the US-led war on terror. Khan also opposes almost all military operations, including the Siege of Lal Masjid.

In 2014, when Pakistani Taliban announced armed struggle against Isma'ili Muslims, denouncing them as non-Muslims, and the Kalash people, Khan released a statement describing "forced conversions as un-Islamic". He has also condemned the incidents of forced conversion of Hindu girls in Sindh. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, Khan congratulated the Taliban for their victory in the 2001–2021 war, and urged the international community to support their new government. He also said that his government was negotiating a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) with the help of the Afghan Taliban.

On 8 January 2016, Khan visited the embassies of Iran and Saudi Arabia in Islamabad and met their head of commissions to understand their stances about the conflict that engulfed both nations after the execution of Sheikh Nimr by Saudi Arabia. He urged the Government of Pakistan to play a positive role to resolve the matter between both countries. After parliament passed a unanimous resolution keeping Pakistan out of the War in Yemen in April 2015, Khan claimed that his party was responsible for "many critical clauses" of the resolution. In July 2018, the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank activated its $4.5 billion oil financing facility for Pakistan.

Khan's support for Pakistan's blasphemy laws carried over into relations with the West. In 2021 he called on "Muslim countries to pressure Western governments to make insulting" the Islamic Prophet Muhammad a crime, "likening this measure to laws against Holocaust denial". He urged Muslims to launch a boycott on products of countries that do not punish "insult" to "the honour of the prophet". Blasphemy is a "sensitive subject" in Pakistan—at least 78 people have been murdered in mob violence and targeted attacks related to blasphemy accusations since 1990. French president Emmanuel Macron became a lightning rod after defending a "publication's right to republish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad", which many Pakistanis consider blasphemous.

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Political ideology

 

Domestic policies

Adopting his broader paradigm from the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal and the Iranian writer-sociologist Ali Shariati he encountered in his youth; Khan is generally described as a Pakistani nationalist as well as a populist. Khan's proclaimed political platform and declarations include Islamic values, to which he rededicated himself in the 1990s; liberal economics, with the promise of deregulating the economy and creating a welfare state; decreased bureaucracy and the implementation of anti-corruption laws to create and ensure a clean government; the establishment of an independent judiciary; overhaul of the country's police system; and an anti-militant vision for a democratic Pakistan.

After the result of 2018 Pakistani general election, Khan said he would try to remake Pakistan based on the ideology of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. During his government, Khan addressed a balance of payments crisis with a bailout from the IMF. He presided over a shrinking current account deficit, and limited defence spending to curtail the fiscal deficit, leading to some general economic growth. He enacted policies that increased tax collection in Pakistan, as well as investments, and the energy policy of Pakistan under Khan saw his government committed to a renewable energy transition. Khan's government also launched the social safety net and poverty alleviation Ehsaas Programme and the Plant for Pakistan initiative, which expanded the protected areas of Pakistan, and he presided over the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, which caused economic turmoil and rising inflation in the country and threatened Khan's political position.

Khan's failure to revive the economy of Pakistan and the rising inflation rate caused him political problems. Despite his promised anti-corruption campaign, the perception of corruption in Pakistan worsened during his rule. He was accused of political victimisation of opponents and clamping down on freedom of expression and dissent. On 10 April 2022, Khan became the country's first prime minister to be ousted through a no-confidence motion vote in parliament. On 22 August 2022, Khan was charged by the Pakistani police under anti-terror laws after Khan accused the police and judiciary of detaining and torturing his close aide.

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In 1996, Khan successfully defended

In 1996, Khan successfully defended himself in a libel action brought forth by former English captain and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb over comments they alleged were made by Khan in two articles about the above-mentioned ball-tampering and another article published in an Indian magazine, India Today. They claimed that, in the latter publication, Khan had called the two cricketers "racist, ill-educated and lacking in class." Khan protested that he had been misquoted, saying that he was defending himself after having admitted that he tampered with a ball in a county match 18 years ago. Khan won the libel case, which the judge labelled a "complete exercise in futility", with a 10–2 majority decision by the jury. Also, Khan had served as a domestic league coach.

Khan served as the chancellor of the University of Bradford between November 2005 and November 2014. Since retiring, Khan has written opinion pieces on cricket for various British and Asian newspapers, especially regarding the Pakistani national team. His contributions have been published in the Indian magazine Outlook, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Daily Telegraph. Khan also sometimes appears as a cricket commentator on Asian and British sports networks, including BBC Urdu, as well as the Star TV network. In 2004, when the Indian cricket team toured Pakistan after 14 years, he was a commentator on TEN Sports' special live show, Straight Drive, while he was also a Sify columnist for the 2005 India-Pakistan Test series. He has provided analysis for every cricket World Cup since 1992, which includes providing match summaries for the BBC during the 1999 Cricket World Cup. He holds as a captain the world record for taking most wickets, best bowling strike rate and best bowling average in Test, and best bowling figures (8 wickets for 60 runs) in a Test innings, and also most five-wicket hauls (6) in a Test innings in wins.

On 23 November 2005, Khan was appointed as the chancellor of University of Bradford, succeeding Betty Lockwood. On 26 February 2014, University of Bradford Union floated a motion to remove Khan from the post over Khan's absence from every graduation ceremony since 2010. Khan announced that he would step down on 30 November 2014, citing his "increasing political commitments". Brian Cantor, the university's vice-chancellor, said Khan had been "a wonderful role model for our students".

Philanthropy

Main articles: Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre and Namal College

During the 1990s, Khan also served as UNICEF's Special Representative for Sports and promoted health and immunization programmed in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While in London, he also works with the Lord's Taverners, a cricket charity. Khan 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. As the Trust's maiden endeavor, Khan established Pakistan's first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding $25 million, raised by Khan from all over the world.

On 27 April 2008, Khan established a technical college in the Mianwali District called Namal College. It was built by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT) and is an associate college of the University of Bradford in December 2005. Imran Khan Foundation is another welfare work, which aims to assist needy people all over Pakistan. It has provided help to flood victims in Pakistan. Buksh Foundation has partnered with the Imran Khan Foundation to light up villages in Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali and Dera Ismail Khan under the project 'Lighting a Million Lives'. The campaign will establish several Solar Charging Stations in the selected off-grid villages and will provide villagers with solar lanterns, which can be regularly charged at the solar-charging stations.

Khan served as the chancellor of the University of Bradford between November 2005 and November 2014.

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Post-retirement from cricket

 

Khan at a political rally in Peshawar in 1996

After retiring, Khan remarked that there was ball tampering during his early cricketing days when playing domestic cricket. Khan had said that, during matches, he "occasionally scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam". Khan defended his actions in the same interview, arguing his conduct was commonplace at the time, even that spin bowlers would lift the seam (i.e. mildly ball tamper); further Khan argued that as he did not lift the seam of the ball above the normal level, he was not violating the rules and spirit of the game within the rules defined whilst he was a player. Further, Khan argued that umpires in his 21 years of cricket had not complained about his conduct; Khan remarked that "The sole judge of fair and unfair play on the cricket field is the umpire". He had also added, "Only once did I use an object. When Sussex was playing Hampshire in 1981 the ball was not deviating at all. I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top and it started to move around a lot."

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Cricket Career

Imran Khan began his cricketing journey at the tender age of 16 in Lahore. By the early 1970s, he was representing various teams including Lahore A (1969–1970), Lahore B (1969–1970), Lahore Greens (1970–1971), and eventually Lahore (1970–1971). Khan also played for the University of Oxford's Blues Cricket team from 1973 to 1975. His stint in English county cricket spanned from 1971 to 1976 with Worcestershire. Additionally, he played for Dawood Industries (1975–1976) and Pakistan International Airlines (1975–1976, 1980–1981). From 1983 to 1988, he represented Sussex.

Khan made his Test cricket debut against England in June 1971 at Edgbaston. Three years later, in August 1974, he played his first One Day International (ODI) match, again facing England at Trent Bridge for the Prudential Trophy. Upon completing his studies at Oxford and his tenure at Worcestershire, he returned to Pakistan in 1976, securing a permanent place in the national team starting from the 1976–1977 season, which included series against New Zealand and Australia. Subsequently, he ventured to the West Indies and was recruited by Tony Greig for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. Khan's reputation as one of the fastest bowlers burgeoned, as he clocked an impressive 139.7 km/h at Perth in 1978, ranking third behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux, and Andy Roberts. Khan was also a pioneer of the reverse swing bowling technique during the late 1970s, passing on his knowledge to the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who later mastered and popularised it.

Initially, Khan bowled with a relatively chest-on action at medium-pace; however, he diligently remodelled his action to a more classical type and worked on strengthening his body to become a fast bowler. Khan reached his zenith as a fast bowler from January 1980 to 1988. During this period, he amassed 236 Test wickets at an average of 17.77, including 18 five-wicket hauls and 5 ten-wicket hauls. His bowling average and strike rate surpassed renowned bowlers such as Richard Hadlee (19.03), Malcolm Marshall (20.20), Dennis Lillee (24.07), Joel Garner (20.62), and Michael Holding (23.68). In January 1983, during a match against India, Khan achieved a Test bowling rating of 922 points, ranking third in the ICC's All-Time Test Bowling Rankings (although calculated retrospectively as ICC player ratings were not in existence at the time).

Khan achieved the all-rounder's triple (securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets) in just 75 Tests, second only to Ian Botham's 72. Additionally, he holds the second-highest batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 in the batting order. His final Test match for Pakistan took place in January 1992 against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan retired from cricket permanently six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 Cricket World Cup Final against England in Melbourne, Australia. He concluded his illustrious career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings, 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. As a bowler, he claimed 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him the first Pakistani and the world's fourth bowler to achieve this milestone.In ODIs, he played 175 matches, scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41, with a highest score of 102 not out. His best ODI bowling performance was 6 wickets for 14 runs, a record for the best bowling figures by any bowler in an ODI innings in a losing cause.

Captaincy

In 1982, at the pinnacle of his career, the thirty-year-old Khan assumed the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team from Javed Miandad.As captain, Khan led Pakistan in 48 Test matches, winning 14, losing 8, and drawing 26. He also captained in 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57, and one ending in a tie.

Under Khan's leadership, Pakistan clinched their first Test victory on English soil in 28 years at Lord's. Khan's inaugural year as captain marked the zenith of his legacy as both a fast bowler and an all-rounder. He delivered the best Test bowling performance of his career, taking 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981–1982.Furthermore, he topped both bowling and batting averages against England in a three-Test series in 1982, claiming 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later that year, he showcased an outstanding performance in a home series against India, taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the culmination of this series in 1982–1983, Khan had scalped 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over the course of a year as captain. However, this Test series against India also resulted in a stress fracture in his shin, sidelining him from cricket for over two years. He made a triumphant return to international cricket by the end of 1984, following an experimental treatment funded by the Pakistani government.

In 1987, during a tour of India, Khan led Pakistan to their first-ever Test series victory, followed by their maiden series triumph in England later that year.[91] Throughout the 1980s, his team also managed three commendable draws against the West Indies. Khan and his team co-hosted the 1987 Cricket World Cup with India, though neither side advanced beyond the semi-finals. Khan retired from international cricket after the World Cup. However, in 1988, he was summoned back to the captaincy by the President of Pakistan, General Zia-Ul-Haq, and on 18 January, he announced his return to the team.

Upon resuming the captaincy, Khan guided Pakistan to another victorious tour in the West Indies, which he later described as "the last time I really bowled well". He was honoured as the Man of the Series against the West Indies in 1988, having taken 23 wickets in three Tests. Khan's career reached its zenith as a captain and cricketer when he led Pakistan to triumph in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Despite facing challenges with a fragile batting line-up, Khan promoted himself as a top-order batsman alongside Javed Miandad. At the age of 39, Khan claimed the final wicket himself, securing Pakistan's victory in the World Cup final against England in Melbourne, Australia.

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Personal life of Imran Khan

 

Imran Khan had numerous relationships during his bachelor   He was then known as a hedonistic bachelor and a playboy who was active on the London nightclub circuit. Many girlfriends are unknown and were called "mysterious blondes" by British newspaper The Times. Some of the women he has been associated with include Zeenat Aman, Emma Sergeant, Susie Murray-Philipson, Sita White, Sarah Crawley, Stephanie Beacham, Goldie Hawn, Kristiane Backer, Susannah Constantine, Marie Helvin, Caroline Kellet , Liza Campbell, Anastasia Cooke, Hannah Rothschild, and Lulu Blacker.

His first girlfriend, Emma Sergeant, an artist and the daughter of British investor Sir Patrick Sergeant, introduced him to socialites. They first met in 1982 and subsequently visited Pakistan. She accompanied him on various Pakistani cricket team tours including in Peshawar and Australian tour. After long separations, his relationship with Sergeant was broken in 1986. He then had a short relationship with Susie Murray-Philipson whom he invited to Pakistan and had dinner with in 1982. She also made various artistic portraits of Khan during their relationship.

In a book published in 2009, Christopher Sandford claimed that Khan and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had a close relationship when both were students in Oxford. He wrote that Bhutto at the age of 21 first became close to Khan in 1975. They remained in a relationship for about two months. His mother also tried to have an arranged marriage between them. He further claimed that they had a "romantic relationship", which was refuted by Khan who said they were only friends.[

Khan allegedly has a daughter, Tyrian Jade, with his ex-girlfriend Sita White, daughter of the British industrialist Gordon White. Born in June 1992, Tyrian became a subject of dispute as Khan denied paternity and willed for a paternity test in Pakistan, stating he would accept the decision of the Pakistani courts. Legal actions in 1997 led to a California court declaring Khan as the father without a DNA test. After Sita White's death in 2004, Jemima, Khan's wife at the time and Sita's friend, was designated as Tyrian's legal guardian by Sita in her will. Khan stated that Tyrian would be welcome to join their family in London, leaving the decision entirely up to her, given her established relationship with his and Jemima's sons.

Khan's former wife, Reham Khan, alleged in her book that he had told her that he had four other children out of wedlock in addition to Tyrian White. Allegedly, some of his children had Indian mothers and the eldest was aged 34 in 2018. Reham subsequently conceded that she did not know the identities of Khan's children or the veracity of his statements and that "you can never make out whether he tells the truth. Reham's book was published on 12 July 2018, 13 days before the 2018 Pakistani general election, leading to claims that its publication was intended to damage Imran Khan's electoral prospects.

On 16 May 1995, Khan married Jemima Goldsmith, in a two-minute ceremony conducted in Urdu in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond registry office in England. Jemima converted to Islam upon marriage. The couple have two sons, Sulaiman Isa and Kasim.On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the couple had divorced, ending the nine-year marriage because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan.

In January 2015, it was announced that Khan had married British-Pakistani journalist Reham Khan in a private Nikah ceremony at his residence in Islamabad. Reham Khan later states in her autobiography that they in fact got married in October 2014 but the announcement only came in January the year after. On 22 October 2015, they announced their intention to file for divorce.

In mid-2016, late 2017 and early 2018, reports emerged that Khan had married his spiritual mentor (murshid), Bushra Bibi. Khan himself,alongside PTI aides, as well as members of the Manika family, denied the rumour. Khan termed the media "unethical" for spreading the rumour,and PTI filed a complaint against the news channels that had aired it. On 7 January 2018, the PTI central secretariat issued a statement that said Khan had proposed to Manika, but she had not yet accepted his proposal. On 18 February 2018, PTI confirmed Khan has married Manika. According to Khan, his life has been influenced by Sufism for three decades, and this is what drew him closer to his wife. The Mufti who conducted the marriage later testified to a court that Khan's nikah had been conducted twice. The first nikah was conducted on 1 January 2018, while his to-be wife was still in her Iddat, as Khan believed he would become prime minister if he married her on that date.

Khan resided in his sprawling farmhouse at Bani Gala. As of 2018, he owned five pet dogs, who resided in his estate.

Imran Khan Young

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Early life and family of Imran Khan

 Information: Family of Imran Khan

Imran Khan was born in Lahore on 5 October 1952.  Earlier, some reports suggest he was born on 25 November 1952. It was reported that 5 October was wrongly mentioned by Pakistan Cricket Board officials on his passport. He is the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum, and has four sisters. Long settled in Mianwali in northwestern Punjab, his paternal family are of Pashtun descent and belong to the Niazi tribe, and one of his ancestors, Haibat Khan Niazi, in the 16th century, "was one of Sher Shah Suri's leading generals, as well as being the governor of Punjab. "Khan's maternal family has produced a number of cricketers, including those who have represented Pakistan, such as his cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan. Maternally, Khan is also a descendant of the Sufi warrior-poet and inventor of the Pashto alphabet, Pir Roshan, who hailed from his maternal family's ancestral Kaniguram town located in South Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His maternal family was based in Basti Danishmanda, Jalandhar in Punjab, India for about 600 years, and migrated to Lahore after the independence of Pakistan.

A quiet and shy boy in his youth, Khan grew up with his sisters in relatively affluent, upper middle-class circumstances and received a privileged education. He was educated at the Aitchison College and Cathedral School in Lahore, and then the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket. In 1972, he enrolled in Keble College, Oxford where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1975.[28] An enthusiast for college cricket at Keble, Paul Hayes, was instrumental in securing the admission of Khan, after he had been turned down by Cambridge.

Imran Khan with his parents and sisters' 

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