Imran Khan Niazi PP, HI (Urdu: عمران احمد خان نیازی) (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, former first-class cricketer and philanthropist who leads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and serves as a member of the National Assembly. Prior to entering politics, Khan played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century.[3][4]
Khan was born to a Pashtun family in Lahore, Punjab, in 1952 and educated at Aitchison, Worcester, and later at Keble College, Oxford. Khan started playing cricket at the age of 13. Initially playing for his college and later for the Worcestershire Cricket Club, he made his debut for Pakistan at the age of 18 during the 1971 English series at Birmingham. After graduating from Oxford, Khan joined Pakistan's national cricket team in 1976, and played until 1992. Khan also served as the team's captain intermittently throughout 1982–1992.[5] He, notably, led Pakistan to victory at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Pakistan's first and only victory in that competition.[6]
Khan retired from cricket in 1992 as one of Pakistan's most successful players. In total he made 3,807 runs and took 362 wickets in Test cricket, and is one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches.[7] He was later, in 2010, inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. In 1991, he launched a fundraising campaign to set up a cancer hospital in memory of his mother. He raised $25 million to set up the first hospital in Lahore in 1994, and later in 2015 a second hospital in Peshawar.[8] Khan remains a prominent philanthropist and commenter, and served as the chancellor of Bradford University between 2005 and 2014 and was the recipient of an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians in 2012.[9][10]
In April 1996, Khan founded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (lit: Pakistan Movement for Justice), a centrist political party, and became the party's national leader. Khan contested for a seat in the National Assembly in October 2002 and served as an opposition member from Mianwali until 2007. He was again elected to the parliament in the 2013 elections, when his party emerged as the second largest in the country by popular vote.[11][12] Khan serves as the parliamentary leader of the party and leads the third largest block of parliamentarians in the National Assembly since 2013. His party also leads a coalition government in north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[13] Khan remains a popular political figure and is the author of, among other publications, Pakistan: A Personal History.[14][15] Imran Khan is concidered as a Strong candidate for the Prime ministership in General Elections 2018.
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