Captain, Philanthropist, Politician, Prime Minister IMRAN KHAN | Story of Imran Khan | Life Struggle of Imran Khan

Did You Know?

Captain, philanthropist, politician, and prime minister. Imran Khan Niazi has been called many things in his life. A life of contrasts and contradictions, a life many in Pakistan can only dream of living. In this blog, we look at the making of this man, his many avatars, many controversies, and the many reasons behind his downfall.

This story starts in October 1952, five years after the independence of Pakistan. Imran Khan was born in Lahore to an upper-middle-class family. Ikram Ullah Niazi, an ethnic Pashtun from the Niazi tribe, was his father. He advocated for independence under the British Raj. His acquaintances regarded him as an outspoken anti-colonialist. Following independence, he worked for Pakistan's public works department and used his fortune to establish several charities around the country. Shaukat Khanum, an ethnic Pashtun from the Burki tribe, was Imran Khan's mother. She was born in the Indian region of Jalandhar to a family of talented cricketers. She eventually moved to Lahore. Imran Khan was their only son, and he had four sisters: Rubina Khanum, a former UN official; Aleema Khanum, a businesswoman.

Imran Khan grew up in a relatively prosperous and safe atmosphere with his sisters. His is a narrative of wealth and opportunity rather than rags to riches. He spent his first 17 years of life at Lahore's elite Aitchison College, a British-established all-boys institution founded in 1868. He subsequently attended the Royal Grammar School in Worcester, England, and then Keble College at the University of Oxford, where he majored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

It was during his days in England that Imran Khan got noticed for his cricketing talent. He played county cricket for Worcestershire and also represented the Oxford Blues cricket team. In 1976, he returned to Pakistan and was part of their national team. Imran Khan had become a star, a cricketing sensation, one of the best bowlers in the world, and a pioneer in the reverse swing technique. Off-field he was as much a swinger, a man about town both in London and Lahore. He led a brazenly modern life and partied just as hard as he played cricket.

Imran Khan had a successful cricket career. He was a fierce player, an excellent all-rounder, and a dynamic skipper. He took Pakistan cricket into its golden period, led his side to World Cup triumph in 1992, and picked and developed a slew of promising players, yet despite his great credentials, he was self-admittedly accomplished.

He got 90,000 euros in prize money after the 92 world cup. He took this money to build the Shaukat Khanum hospital, a cancer center in Lahore, named after his mother. To date, it is Pakistan's largest tertiary care hospital. It was built on funds from Pakistani citizens and a host of international donors.

He married three times. In 1995, he married Jemima Goldsmith, the 21-year-old daughter of Sir James Goldsmith, a famous investor, and politician. They split in 2004 because Jemima couldn't adjust to living in Pakistan. He married Reham Khan, a British journalist of Pakistani ancestry, in January 2015. They divorced in October of the same year. Reham Khan blamed her husband's irresponsible lifestyle as well as his patriarchal outlook. Imran Khan married Bushra Bibi, in February 2018, four months before becoming Prime Minister.

Imran Khan started politics in 1996, he made it official by establishing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The party, also known as the "Movement for Justice," was marketed as an anti-corruption, socio-political movement to create a quote "self-reliant contemporary Islamic Republic." However, Khan's party has had few triumphs in over two decades.

The PTI failed to win a single parliamentary seat in their first general election in 1997. Imran Khan was elected to Pakistan's National Assembly in 2002, and there was no stopping him. In 2007, he used his anti-corruption beliefs to lead a student protest against the then-military ruler and President General Pervez Musharraf's authoritarian crackdown, for which he was detained. As another form of protest, he embarked on a hunger strike while imprisoned. Some detractors accused him of failing to decisively crack down on violent extremist organizations, nicknaming him "Taliban Khan."

Though Khan has generally opposed violent terrorist acts, detractors claim that he has occasionally behaved as an apologist for organizations such as the Tablian, blaming the group's existence in Pakistan on US engagement in Afghanistan and seeking discussions with them. "If there was a possibility for peace negotiations, we should have taken it," Khan remarked.

In the end, 2013 was his party's most successful year to that moment. The PTI gained 27 seats, which is not a significant triumph but a step forward for the party. He promised to raise millions out of poverty, create jobs, and expand access to education and healthcare. He also reiterated his vows to root out corruption and vowed to confront the existing quo. His anti-corruption, anti-elitism, and anti-poverty messaging, according to experts, resonated with youthful, middle-class, urban voters. People under the age of 35 made up about half of the country's registered voters as of late 2017.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won 115 of the 270 available seats in July 2018. He had finally accomplished an objective that had been in the works for more than two decades. The streets were filled with people celebrating.

By late March 2022, a succession of defections had stripped him of his parliamentary majority, and the opposition pounced, putting a resolution of no confidence on the table. Mr. Khan attempted to avoid the action by dissolving parliament and announcing a quick election, but the Supreme Court decided that this was a violation of the constitution. On April 10, a vote of no confidence was held, and Imran Khan was defeated, with his opponents receiving 174 votes in the 342-member parliament.

Imran Khan had wanted to serve a full five-year term, something no previous prime minister in Pakistan's history had done. Because of his policies toward Afghanistan, Russia, and China, he alleged that his political opponents were working with the US to bring about regime change. Tens of thousands came to the streets in cities throughout Pakistan on the night he was expelled from office, demonstrating for the former Prime Minister.