Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi[a] (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He is the founder and former chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Born in Lahore, Khan graduated from Keble College, Oxford. He began his international cricket career in a 1971 Test series against England. Khan played until 1992, served as the team's captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992, and won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Pakistan's only victory in the competition. Considered one of cricket's greatest all-rounders, Khan was later inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Founding the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996, Khan won a seat in the National Assembly in the 2002 general election, serving as an opposition member from Mianwali until 2007. PTI boycotted the 2008 general election and became the second-largest party by popular vote in the 2013 general election. In the 2018 general election, running on a populist platform, PTI became the largest party in the National Assembly, and formed a coalition government with independents with Khan as prime minister.
Khan has published six works of non-fiction, including an autobiography co-written with Patrick Murphy. He has also written about the modern history of Pakistan in his book Main Aur Mera Pakistan published in 2014 in Urdu and Hindi.[472] The book contains details about Pakistan's wars with India in 1965 and 1971, the impact of 1979 Iranian Revolution and capture of terrorist Osama bin Laden at Abbottabad in 2011.[473] He periodically writes editorials on cricket and Pakistani politics in several leading Pakistani and British newspapers. It was revealed in 2008 that Khan's second book, Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan, had required heavy editing from the publisher. The publisher Jeremy Lewis revealed in a memoir that when he asked Khan to show his writing for publication, "He handed me a leather-bound notebook or diary containing a few jottings and autobiographical snippets. It took me, at most, five minutes to read them; and that, it soon became apparent, was all we had to go on."[474] Khan's most recent book was published in 2011, an autobiography about his transition from cricketer to politician, as well as the challenges he faced in his philanthropic work.[475]
Khan has also penned op-eds in various media outlets, including CNN where he advocated for conversation and restoration of damaged natural ecosystems.[476]
In June 2024, reports emerged that Imran, while in prison, has been writing a book over the past few months and has already completed over 300 pages.[477]
Khan, Imran (1975). West and East. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-0-333-90059-8.
Khan, Imran; Murphy, Patrick (1983). Imran: The Autobiography of Imran Khan. Pelham Books. ISBN 978-0-7207-1489-0.
Khan, Imran (1989). Imran Khan's Cricket Skills. London: Golden Press in association with Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0-600-56349-5.
Khan, Imran (1991). Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-3527-0.
Khan, Imran (1992). All Round View. Mandarin. ISBN 978-0-7493-1499-6.
