Daily Times

It seem the ex-cricketer and the current Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran khan is on his way to become Pakistan’s next PM as his party gained majority of the seats across the country in the elections 2018.

Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi was born in 1952 in Lahore and got his early education from Aitchison, Worcester and later at Keble College, Oxford.

He started playing cricket at age of 13 and even captained the oxford’s cricket team and then later for the cricket club in Worcestershire. He made his debut for Pakistan national cricket team against England at the age of 18 in 1971.

Khan got married to Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of late financier Sir James Goldsmith in 1995. But their marriage did not last long due to personal reasons and ended in 2004.

Apart from being a true champion in cricket, he started his political career after forming a political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf shortly after his marriage to Jemima in late 1990s.

In his life, Khan has always been an ambitious man who never gave up hope on anything. His main focus to come to politics was to pull the country out of turmoil.

Khan once said: “Never give up, no matter how hard life gets no matter how much pain you feel, pain will eventually subside, nothing remains forever, so keep going and don’t give up.”

Now after continuous struggle of 22 years, he and his party finally have emerged victorious in general elections 2018 in Pakistan so we have to see if he can turn everything around for Pakistan.

Here are few interesting facts about Imran Khan which will surely be remembered for a long time.

Imran Khan is considered as one of the greatest living legends in history of cricket. He captained Pakistan national cricket team for ten years from 1982 to 1992.

His debut match for Pakistan’s cricket team was when he was only 18 against England at Birmingham in 1971.

In his captaincy, Pakistan won the 1992 Cricket World Cup which is only Pakistan’s first and only victory in that competition in the top tournament. He retired from cricket in 1992 making 3,807 runs and took 362 wickets in Test cricket. His name was added into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.

Khan founded Shaukat Khanum trust in the memory of his mother who died from cancer in 1991. Prior entering into politics, he focused all his energy to the cause and raised money through donations and made the first cancer hospital, which is now known as the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in Lahore in 1994.

His political success first came when he won his first seat for PTI in 2002 from Mianwali. He served as a member of the opposition until 2007 during former president Pervaiz Musharraf’s era.

Due to his continued hardwork and perseverance, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf became the second largest political party in Pakistan in elections 2013. Khan was a member of Pakistan National Assembly from 2013 to 2018, a seat he won in 2013 general elections.

In 2018 elections, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan made history by winning all five National Assembly seats which he contested on. PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had the most wins previously, bagging 3 out of 4 seats in the 1970 general elections.

Details of constituencies he won from

NA-53 Islamabad: Imran won with 92,891 votes while former Prime Minister ShahidKhaqan Abbas managed to get 44,314 votes.

NA-35 Bannu: Imran won with 24,317 votes defeating MMA candidate Akram Durrani, who had 22,514 votes.

NA-43 Karachi: Imran won with 91,358 votes with a heavy margin against MQM-P’s Ali Raza Abidi, who got only 24,082 votes.

NA-95 Mianwali: Imran defeated PML-N candidate Obaidullah Shadikhel in his home town by gaining 162,499 votes. The PML-N candidate bagged just 49,505 votes.

NA-131 Lahore: Imran gained 84,313 votes and won by close margin against PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique, who got 83,633 votes.  This was, hands down, the toughest battle for Imran this elections, and the win margins were few and far between too.

With PTI winning over a 100 seats in the National Assembly, it seems likely that Khan could be on course to becoming Pakistan’s PM for the next five years. He even addressed the nation after the party’s mega win on Thursday and promised to pull the country out of all it’s problems, and all we can hope is that he stays true to his words.

Will Khan be able to make a Naya Pakistan he has long been dreaming of?