Imran Khan
Imran Khan won Pakistan a cricket World Cup, spent twenty-two years building a party, governed for less than four, and went to prison. He captained the side that won in 1992 and was the most famous Pakistani alive. He built a cancer hospital in Lahore in his mother's name, funded largely by public donation, and founded a party in 1996 that won one seat in its first three elections combined. His constituency was the urban young and the professional middle class, and his subject was corruption. He came to power in 2018 in an election his opponents said the army had arranged, promising an Islamic welfare state and an end to the dynasties. His government raised health coverage in the largest province, planted trees at scale, and ran a cash transfer programme during the pandemic that reached millions. Pakistan avoided the death toll its density suggested and kept its factories open. The economy did not hold. He went to the International Monetary Fund after saying he would rather die than ask, inflation ran into double figures, and the rupee fell steadily. He fell out with the army chief who had been his patron, over the appointment of the intelligence director in 2021. In April 2022 he lost a vote of no confidence, the first Pakistani prime minister removed that way. He said the United States had arranged it and waved a diplomatic cable at rallies. He was shot in the leg at a march in November, arrested in May 2023, and his arrest brought crowds into military installations, which the army treated as the crossing of a line. He was convicted in three cases and his party was barred from its own symbol at the 2024 election, whose independents won the most seats anyway.
- Lived: 1952 CE – ?
- Nationality: Pakistani
- Roles: head_of_state, politician
