Abdullah Gül
11th President of the Republic of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 August 2007
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 18 November 2002 – 14 March 2003
President	Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Preceded by	Bülent Ecevit
Succeeded by	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 28 March 2003 – 28 August 2007
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Mehmet Ali Şahin
Succeeded by	Cemil Çiçek
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 14 March 2003 – 28 August 2007
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Yaşar Yakış
Succeeded by	Ali Babacan
Personal details
Born	(1950-10-29) 29 October 1950 (age 61) Kayseri, Turkey
Other political affiliations	Welfare (1991–1997) Virtue (1997–2001) Justice and Development (2001–2007)
Spouse(s)	Hayrünnisa Gül (m. 1980)
Children	Ahmet Münir, Kübra, Mehmet Emre
Alma mater	Istanbul University University of Exeter
Religion	Sunni Islam
Signature
Website	tccb.gov.tr

Abdullah Gül (Turkish: [abduɫˈɫɑh ˈɟyl]; born 29 October 1950) is the 11th and current President of the Republic of Turkey, serving in that office since 28 August 2007. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002-03, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2003-07.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's nomination of Gül as a presidential candidate drew strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey. In May 2007, Gül's first bid for presidency was blocked by the Constitutional Court,^[1] due to concern over views Gül expressed during his Welfare Party years, and the fact that his wife, Hayrünnisa, wears a headscarf.^[2] However, following the parliamentary elections in July of the same year, which were won by the Justice and Development Party with 46.6% of the popular vote, he was eventually elected President on 28 August 2007 and was sworn in the same day, becoming the first openly devout Muslim President in the modern history of Turkey.^[3][4]

Early life[link]

President Gül was born in Kayseri, a city in central Anatolia. His father is Ahmed Hamdi Gül, a retired air force mechanic, and his mother is Adviye Gül (née Satoğlu). His family has lived in the Güllük district of Kayseri for about a century.^[5][6] His ancestry/ethnicity according to a Çankaya Presidential Residence statement is "Turkish Muslim." Gül was also called with the name Cumhur (which means 'people') by his family.^[7]

Education[link]

Gül studied Economics at the Istanbul University. During his graduate education, he studied for two years in London and Exeter in the United Kingdom. He pursued an academic career after that and worked at the higher education facilities in Adapazarı, collaborating in the establishment of the Department for Industrial Engineering and teaching Management courses at the ITU Sakarya Engineering Faculty, which later became the Sakarya University in 1992. He received a Ph.D. degree from the Istanbul University in 1983. He is also conferred to an Honorary Ph.D. degree from Amity University, NOIDA -India on February 8, 2009, and an LL.D. degree from University of Dhaka on February 13, 2010.^[8] Between 1983 and 1991, he worked at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 1991, he became a lecturer in International Management.

Entry into politics[link]

Gül became acquainted with right-wing politics early during his high school years. During his university education, he became a member of the Islamist-nationalist Millî Türk Talebe Birliği (National Turkish Students' Union) in the line of Necip Fazıl's Büyük Doğu (Grand Orient) current.^[9]

He was elected a member of the Turkish parliament for the Refah Partisi (RP, "the Welfare Party") from Kayseri Province in 1991 and 1995. During these years, he made statements about the political system of Turkey that was designed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish National Movement, which included "This is the end of the republican period" and "The secular system has failed and we definitely want to change it".^[10] These statements caused controversy when his candidacy for the 2007 presidential election was announced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.^[11]

In 1999, he kept his seat as a member of the Fazilet Partisi (FP, "the Virtue Party") which was subsequently outlawed by the Constitutional Court for its violation of the Constitution. Its predecessor, the Refah Partisi, was also outlawed by the Constitutional Court for its violation of the Constitution, especially the principle of secularism. By this time, Gül had apparently moderated his views and was reportedly considered to be part of the Virtue Party's reformist faction. As such, he was among the founders of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party), a party which billed itself as a moderate conservative party in the European tradition. He was elected once again to represent Kayseri in 2002.^{[citation needed]}

AKP career[link]

Prime Minister[link]

After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the most votes in the November 2002 general election, Gül was appointed Prime Minister, as AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was unable to assume the role due to a ban on his participation in politics. After Gül's government secured legislation allowing Erdoğan's return to politics, the latter took over as prime minister on 14 March 2003. Gül was appointed deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

Foreign minister[link]

After becoming foreign minister in March 2003, Gül became the key player in Turkey's attempts to receive an accession date for the European Union and in its attempts to improve relations with Syria and maintaining its relationship with the Turkic-speaking countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. On February 6, 2007, Gül flew to the United States to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.^{[citation needed]}

Presidency[link]

Gül with Barack Obama on Obama's first visit to Ankara.

Turkish president Abdullah Gül and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Russia,13 February 2009.

Prime Minister Erdoğan announced on 24 April 2007 that Gül would be the Justice and Development Party candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Previously, there had been speculation that Erdoğan himself would be the party's candidate, which had provoked substantial opposition from secularists.^[12][13] When a boycott of opposition parties in Parliament deadlocked the election process, Gül formally withdrew his candidacy on 6 May 2007. If elected he would be the first president to have been involved with Islamist parties.

But a few days later, on 11 May 2007 when he inquired after the alterations to the Turkish constitution which now allowed the people to elect the president directly rather than a parliamentary vote, Gül announced that he was still intending to run.^[14][15]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and President Abdullah Gul during a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace of Cankaya in Ankara, Turkey.

Gül and Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at the Cankaya presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, 20 January 2011.

Following the July 2007 parliamentary election, the AK Party renominated Gül as its presidential candidate on August 13; the election was again held as a vote of parliament.^[16] On 14 August, Gül submitted his candidacy application to parliament and expressed his commitment to secularism at a news conference.^[17]

On 28 August 2007, he was elected president in the third round of voting; in the first two rounds, a two-thirds majority of MPs had been required, but in the third round he needed only a simple majority. Gül was sworn in immediately thereafter.^[18] The process was a very low-key affair.^[19] Gül's swearing-in was not attended by the Chief of the Turkish General Staff and was boycotted by the opposition Republican People's Party; then the hand-over of power at the presidential palace was held behind closed doors. Gül's wife was not present. This approach continued; the traditional evening reception hosted by the new president at the presidential palace for the country's highest authorities was announced for 11:30 in the morning and wives were not invited.^[20]

His presidency has been described as a "new era in Turkish politics", for being the first devout Muslim president of Turkey.^[21]

Gül received messages of congratulation from the US, EU and German authorities while Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan made a statement saying "a structure doomed to uncertainty has been overcome" (an oblique reference to the deep state theory that Turkey is ruled behind-closed-doors by a secret conspiracy of soldiers and bureaucrats).^[22]

In September 2008 he became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia, sparking a major debate in Turkey.^[23]

Personal life[link]

On August 20, 1980, Abdullah Gül married Hayrünnisa Özyurt who also originates from Kayseri.^[24][25] The couple have three children. He is a fan of the football club Beşiktaş J.K. of Istanbul.^[26]

Full Style[link]

1950–1983 Abdullah Gül

1983–1991 Dr. Abdullah Gül

1991–1996 Associate Professor Doctor Abdullah Gül, MP

1996–2002 Associate Professor Doctor Abdullah Gül, Minister of State of the Republic of Turkey

2002–2003 His Excellency Associate Professor Doctor Abdullah Gül, 58th Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

2003–2007 His Excellency Associate Professor Doctor Abdullah Gül, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey

2007-Current His Excellency Associate Professor Doctor Abdullah Gül, 11th President of the Republic of Turkey.^[27]

Decorations and awards[link]

•  United Kingdom: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath (GCB; 14 May 2008)
•  Saudi Arabia: Collar of Abdulaziz al Saud (2007)
•  Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (GColIH; 12 May 2009)
•  Pakistan: Nishan-e-Pakistan (NPk)^[28]
•  Italy: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
•  Kuwait: Collar of the Order of Mubarak the Great
•  Cameroon: National Decoration
•  Qatar: Necklace of Independence
•  Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (April 2012) ^[29]
• President Abdullah Gül has been voted the winner of the Chatham House Prize 2010 (19 March 2010) ^[30]

See also[link]

• Çankaya Köşkü The Presidency of the Republic of Turkey

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Abdullah Gül

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Abdullah Gül

• Presidency of the Republic of Turkey
• Abdullah Gül on Twitter

v t e Presidents of the Republic of Turkey (List) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk İsmet İnönü Celâl Bayar Cemal Gürsel Cevdet Sunay Fahri Korutürk Kenan Evren Turgut Özal Süleyman Demirel Ahmet Necdet Sezer Abdullah Gül

v t e Foreign Ministers of Turkey Bekir Sami Kunduh Ahmet Muhtar Mollaoğlu Yusuf Kemal Tengirşenk İsmet İnönü Şükrü Kaya Tevfik Rüştü Aras Şükrü Saracoğlu Numan Menemencioğlu Hasan Saka Necmettin Sadak Mehmet Fuat Köprülü Adnan Menderes Fatin Rüştü Zorlu Ethem Menderes Selim Sarper Feridun Cemal Erkin Hasan Esat Işık İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil Osman Olcay Haluk Bayülken Turan Güneş Metin Esenbel Gündüz Ökçün Hayrettin Erkmen Ertuğrul Ekrem Ceyhun İlter Türkmen Vahit Melih Halefoğlu Mesut Yılmaz Ali Bozer Ahmet Kurtcebe Alptemoçin Safa Giray Hikmet Çetin Mümtaz Soysal Murat Karayalçın Erdal İnönü Coşkun Kırca Deniz Baykal Emre Gönensay Tansu Çiller İsmail Cem Şükrü Sina Gürel Yaşar Yakış Abdullah Gül Ali Babacan Ahmet Davutoğlu

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdullah Gül (2002–2003) Cabinet Deputy Prime Ministers Mehmet Ali Şahin • Abdüllatif Şener • Ertuğrul Yalçınbayır Minister of State Mehmet Aydın • Beşir Atalay • Ali Babacan • Kürşad Tüzmen Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek Minister of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül Minister of the Interior Abdülkadir Aksu Minister of Foreign Affairs Yaşar Yakış Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan Minister of National Education Erkan Mumcu Minister of Public Works and Settlement Zeki Ergezen Minister of Health Recep Akdağ Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım Minister of Agriculture Sami Güçlü Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu Minister of Industry and Commerce Ali Coşkun Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler Minister of Culture Hüseyin Çelik Minister of Tourism Güldal Akşit Minister of Environment İmdat Sütlüoğlu Minister of Forestry Osman Pepe

v t e First cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2003–2007) Cabinet Deputy Prime Ministers Abdullah Gül (2003–2007) Mehmet Ali Şahin (2003–2007) Abdüllatif Şener (2003–2007) Minister of State Ali Babacan (2003–2007) Güldal Akşit (2003-2005) • Nimet Çubukçu (2005–2007) Mehmet Aydın (2003–2007) Kürşad Tüzmen (2003–2007) Beşir Atalay (2003–2007) Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek (2003–2007) • Fahri Kasırga (2007) Minister of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül (2003–2007) Minister of the Interior Abdülkadir Aksu (2003–2007) • Osman Güneş (2007) Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül (2003–2007) Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan (2003–2007) Minister of National Education Hüseyin Çelik (2003–2007) Minister of Public Works and Settlement Zeki Ergezen (2003-2007) • Faruk Nafız Özak (2005–2007) Minister of Health Recep Akdağ (2003–2007) Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım (2003–2007) • İsmet Yılmaz (2007) Minister of Agriculture Sami Güçlü (2003–2005) • Mehmet Mehdi Eker (2005–2007) Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu (2003–2007) Minister of Industry and Commerce Ali Coşkun (2003–2007) Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler (2003–2007) Minister of Culture and Tourism Erkan Mumcu (2003–2005) • Atilla Koç (2005–2007) Minister of Environment and Forestry Osman Pepe (2003–2007)

Charlie Rose
Rose in May 2010
Born	Charles Peete Rose, Jr. (1942-01-05) January 5, 1942 (age 70) Henderson, North Carolina, U.S.
Education	Duke University B.A. (1964) Duke University J.D. (1968)
Occupation	Talk show host Journalist
Years active	1972–present
Notable credit(s)	Charlie Rose, 60 Minutes II, 60 Minutes, CBS News Nightwatch, CBS This Morning
Website
http://www.charlierose.com/

Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. (born January 5, 1942)^[1] is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993. He has also co-anchored CBS This Morning since January 2012. Rose, along with Lara Logan, has hosted the revived CBS classic Person to Person, a news program during which celebrities are interviewed in their homes, originally hosted from 1953 to 1961 by Edward R. Murrow.^[2]

Early life[link]

Rose was born in Henderson, North Carolina, the only child^[3] of Margaret Frazier and Charles Peete Rose, Sr., tobacco farmers who owned a country store.^[4][5] As a child, Rose lived above his parents' store in Henderson and helped out with the family business from age seven.^[6] Rose admitted in a Fresh Dialogues interview that as a child his insatiable curiosity was constantly getting him in trouble.^[7] A high school basketball star, Rose entered Duke University intending to pursue a degree with a pre-med track, but an internship in the office of Democratic North Carolina Senator B. Everett Jordan got him interested in politics.^[8] Rose graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in history. At Duke, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He earned a Juris Doctor from the Duke University School of Law in 1968.^[6] He met his wife, Mary (née King), while attending Duke.^[3][4]

Career[link]

After his wife was hired by the BBC (in New York), Rose handled some assignments for the BBC on a freelance basis. In 1972, while continuing to work at Bankers Trust, he landed a job as a weekend reporter for WPIX-TV. His break came in 1974, after Bill Moyers hired Rose as managing editor for the PBS series Bill Moyers' International Report. In 1975, Moyers named Rose executive producer of Bill Moyers Journal. Rose soon began appearing on camera. "A Conversation with Jimmy Carter," one installment of Moyers's series U.S.A.: People and Politics, won a 1976 Peabody Award. Rose worked at several networks honing his interview skills until KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth hired him as program manager and gave him the late-night time slot that would become the Charlie Rose show.

Rose worked for CBS News (1984–1990) as the anchor of CBS News Nightwatch, the network's first late-night news broadcast. The Nightwatch broadcast of Rose's interview with Charles Manson won an Emmy Award in 1987.^[4] In 1990, Rose left CBS to serve as anchor of Personalities, a syndicated program produced by Fox Broadcasting Company, but he got out of his contract after six weeks because of the tabloid-style content of the show. Charlie Rose premiered on PBS station Thirteen/WNET on September 30, 1991, and has been nationally syndicated since January 1993. In 1994, Rose moved the show to a studio owned by Bloomberg Television, which allowed for improved satellite interviewing.^[9]

Rose was a correspondent for 60 Minutes II^[10] from its inception in January 1999 until its cancellation in September 2005, and was later named a correspondent on 60 Minutes.^[11]

Rose was a member of the board of directors of Citadel Broadcasting Corporation from 2003 to 2009.^[3] In May 2010, Charlie Rose delivered the commencement address at North Carolina State University.

On November 15, 2011, it was announced that Rose would return to CBS to help anchor CBS This Morning, replacing The Early Show, commencing January 9, 2012, along with co-anchors Erica Hill and Gayle King.

Cameo appearances[link]

Rose has appeared as himself in the 1998 film Primary Colors,^[12] in a 2000 episode of The Simpsons^[13] and in the 2008 movie Elegy.^[14] He and his show were also used in the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. He also appears as himself in the 2011 George Clooney directed film, The Ides of March.

[edit] Accusations of conflict of interest

While hosting the 2002 Coca-Cola Company shareholders' meeting, Rose said "few companies are able to connect as completely with consumers in the way that Coca-Cola is. It is a privilege to be associated with [The Coca-Cola family] ... This is the business of Coca-Cola: being part of a family, being worldwide, doing well and doing good at the same time."^[15] Afterward, Coca-Cola agreed to become what Rose called "a leading underwriter" of The Charlie Rose Show, paying "six or possibly seven figures."^[16] Even the Charlie Rose mugs used on his PBS show feature a Coca-Cola logo on one side.^[17][18] Although CBS News policy bars correspondents from doing commercials and product endorsements, the Washington Post reported CBS was "comfortable" with Rose's actions. Rose insists he "would never do a story on 60 Minutes II about anybody who underwrites my PBS show."^[16]

[edit] Quiet influence

The New York Times reported that Rose encouraged a discussion between the leaders of NBC and Fox, that led eventually to a mutual reduction in ad hominem attacks between Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly on their respective news programs.^[19]

Rose has attended several Bilderberg Group conference meetings, including meetings held in the United States in 2008;^[20] Spain in 2010;^[21] and Switzerland in 2011.^[22] These unofficial conferences hold guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are political leaders and businessmen. Details of meetings are closed off to the public and strictly invitation-only, and critics^[who?] speculate the controversial nature of these meetings of highly influential people. Accusations from conspiracy theorists against The Charlie Rose show claim that it has become the US media outlet for Bilderberg.^{[23][unreliable source?]}

Personal life[link]

Rose's twelve-year marriage to Mary Rose (née King) ended in divorce in 1980. Mary is the sister-in-law of Morgan Stanley Chairman John J. Mack. Since 1993, his companion has been socialite and chairman of the New York City Planning Commission and director of the city department of planning Amanda Burden, a stepdaughter of CBS founder William S. Paley.^[24]

On March 29, 2006, after experiencing shortness of breath in Syria, Rose was flown to Paris and underwent surgery for mitral valve repair in the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital. His surgery was performed under the supervision of Alain F. Carpentier, a pioneer of the procedure.^[25] Rose returned to the air on June 12, 2006, with Bill Moyers and Yvette Vega (the show's executive producer), to discuss his surgery and recuperation.

In a 2009 Fresh Dialogues interview, Rose described his life as "great and glorious."^[7] He added, '"I get up every morning with a new adventure. The adventure is fueled by interesting people. I get a chance to control my own destiny. I do something that is immediately either appreciated or not. I get feedback."

Rose owns a 575-acre (2.33 km²) farm in Oxford, North Carolina, an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City, a beach house in Bellport, New York, an apartment in Washington D.C.^[3] and an apartment in Paris, France.

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (March 2012)

• Charlie Rose Official website of his eponymous show
• Charlie Rose official channel on YouTube
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Charlie Rose at the Internet Movie Database
• Charlie Rose collected news and commentary at the Los Angeles Times
• Charlie Rose collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Charlie Rose at the Notable Names Database
• Charlie Rose shows on Hulu
• celebritynetworth.com, Celebrity Net Worth, Charlie Rose
• Why Business Loves Charlie Rose David A. Kaplan, Fortune, September 28, 2009

Hamid Gul
Hamid Gul, PA
Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence
In office March 29 1987 – October 4, 1989
Preceded by	Akhtar Abdur Rahman
Succeeded by	Shamsur Rahman Kallu
Personal details
Born	(1936-11-20) 20 November 1936 (age 75) Sargodha, British Punjab, British Indian Empire
Citizenship	Pakistan
Alma mater	Pakistan Military Academy Government College University, Lahore
Occupation	Retired Army Officer
Religion	Islam
Military service
Allegiance	Pakistan
Service/branch	Pakistan Army
Years of service	1958–1992
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Unit	19th Lancers, Army Armoured Corps
Commands	1st Armoured Division, Multan DG Military Intelligence (DGMI) DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) II Strike Corps, Multan
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Soviet war in Afghanistan Battle of Jalalabad Afghanistan War of 1989 Operation Rakhshak
Awards	Sitara-e-Basalat Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military)

Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul (Urdū:حمید گل; born 20 November 1936) HI(M), SBt, is a retired high-ranking general officer in the Pakistan Army, famous for serving as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989 during the late stages of and post-stages of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[1]

Gul is widely known and credited for pressing the hard-line policies on India after starting the insurgency in Kashmir against India in 1989^[2] by diverting the Mujahideen who participated in the Soviet war to Indian-held Kashmir. Gul was also instrumental in the establishment of the Taliban and was once known as the "father of the Taliban".^[3] Apart from the Kashmir militancy in India and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Gul is also accused by the United States of having ties to Islamic terrorist organizations such as the Al Qaeda.^[4]

Gul's tenure as the director of the ISI coincided with Benazir Bhutto's term as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Later, Gul established the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA), a far-right conservative wing against the secular MQM and the democratic socialists, the Pakistan Peoples Party.^{[citation needed]}

Early life[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2011)

Hamid Gul was born on 20 November 1936 to Muhammad Khan, in the Sargodha District of Punjab in what was then British India but now Pakistan. He got his early education from a school in his village. He briefly got admission in Government College Lahore, before reporting to Pakistan Military Academy Kakul.

Army career[link]

Hamid Gul was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in October 1958 with the 18th PMA Long Course in the 19th Lancers regiment of the Armoured Corps. He was a Tank commander during the 1965 war with India. During 1972-1976, Gul directly served under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq as a battalion commander, when General Zia was GOC, 1st Armoured Division and Commander, II Corps at Multan. Thus, Gul had already cemented his ties with General Zia by serving under him when both were officers in the Armoured regiments of the II Corps. Gul was promoted to Brigadier in 1978 and steadily rose to be the Martial Law Administrator of Bahawalpur and the Commander of the 1st Armoured Division, Multan in 1982, his appointments expressly wished by Zia himself.^{[citation needed]}

Saudi influence[link]

Gul was then sent to GHQ as the Director-General or DG Military Intelligence (DGMI)^[5] under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq who then nominated him to be the ISI chief succeeding General Akhtar Abdur Rahman in March 1987. He was later replaced as the ISI commander by PM Benazir Bhutto in May 1989 and Gul was transferred as the commander, II Corps in Multan. In this capacity, Gul conducted the Zarb-e-Momin military exercise in November–December 1989, the biggest Pakistani Armed Forces show of muscle since 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

General Asif Nawaz upon taking the reins of Pakistan Army in August 1991, had Gul transferred as the DG Heavy Industries Taxila. A menial job compared to Gul's stature, Gul refused to take the assignment, an act for which he was retired from the army.^[6]

Career as ISI Chief[link]

Execution of failed Jalalabad operation[link]

During his time as head of the ISI and the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Gul was blamed for planning and executing the operation to capture Jalalabad from the Afghan army in the spring of 1989. This switch to conventional warfare was seen as a mistake by some mujahideen leaders who considered that the mujahideen did not have the capacity to capture a major city. But the Pakistani army was intent on installing a fundamentalist-dominated government in Afghanistan, with Jalalabad as their provisional capital, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf as Prime Minister, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as Foreign Minister.

Contrary to Pakistani expectations, this battle proved that the Afghan army could fight without Soviet help, and greatly increased the confidence of government supporters. Conversely, the morale of the mujahideen involved in the attack slumped and many local commanders of Hekmatyar and Sayyaf concluded truces with the government.^[7] In the words of Brigadier Mohammad Yousef, an officer of the ISI, "the jihad [meaning the plans for Hekmatyar to be installed as prime minister] never recovered from Jalalabad". As a result of this failure, Hamid Gul was sacked by Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and replaced by Shamsur Rahman Kallu, who pursued a more classical policy of support to the militants fighting Afghanistan.

Organization of IJI against PPP[link]

During his tenure as ISI chief in 1988, General Gul successfully gathered right-wing politicians and helped them create Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, a religio-political conservative coalition against the left-leaning liberal Pakistan Peoples Party. He has recently acknowledged this fact in various interviews^[8] and for this he was harshly rebuked in one of editorials of a major Pakistani newspaper, which asked the general to apologize first to the PPP for having done the sordid deed and after that, apologizing for lack of wits because the IJI could not maintain its two-thirds majority for long.^[9]

Kashmir Insurgency[link]

Indian front[link]

According to B Raman, an Indian strategic analyst, Gul actively backed Khalistani terrorism. "When Bhutto became prime minister in 1988", Raman says, "Gul justified backing these insurgents as the only way of preempting a fresh Indian threat to Pakistan's territorial integrity. When she asked him to stop playing that card, he reportedly told her: Madam, keeping Punjab destabilized is equivalent to the Pakistan army having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers." "Gul strongly advocated supporting indigenous Kashmiri groups", adds Raman, "but was against infiltrating Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries into Jammu and Kashmir. He believed Pakistan would play into India's hands by doing so."^[10]

Iranian front[link]

In Islamabad, Gul asked that Iran should explain its bona fides regarding the pact signed with India to jointly counter terrorism. According to him, "Iran should come clear on the nature of agreement with India. Otherwise this will create doubts and apprehensions in Muslim Ummah that Iran helps RAW in putting down Kashmir jihad". He also added that in case doubts about the agreement came true and Iran was seen as working with India against "Kashmir freedom struggle", then it will be concluded that the country also supports Mossad, Israeli external intelligence agency.^[11]

Turning against the United States[link]

General Gul worked closely with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when he was the ISI chief. But, he became passionately anti-American after the United States turned its back on Afghanistan following the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, as the United States had promised to help build a prosperous Afghanistan.^[10] He was further disconcerted when the USA began punishing Pakistan with economic and military sanctions for its secret nuclear program. General Gul then went on to declare that "the Muslim world must stand united to confront the U.S. in its so-called War on Terrorism, which is in reality a war against Muslims. Let's destroy America wherever its troops are trapped."^[12]

General Gul personally met Osama Bin Laden in 1993 and refused to label him a terrorist unless and until irrefutable evidence was provided linking him to alleged acts of terrorism.^[13]

Accusation of US and Israel behind 9/11[link]

Only days after the September 11 attacks he stated that they were clearly an inside job. ^[14] That interview was not published by newspapers.^[15]

Post-Army career[link]

Solidarity with Osama bin Laden[link]

According to Zahid Hussain, in his book Frontline Pakistan, Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul and former Army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg were part of the 9 January 2001 Darul Uloom Haqqania Islamic conference held near Peshawar, which was also attended by 300 leaders representing various Islamic groups. The meeting declared it a religious duty of Muslims all over the world to protect the Taliban government, and the Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden it was hosting, whom they considered as a 'great Muslim warrior.'^[16]

Support for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry[link]

On 12 March 2007, Gul marched shoulder-to-shoulder with activists from the liberal democratic parties and retired former senior military officers against General Pervez Musharraf. General Gul faced down riot police when they tried to arrest him at a rally outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad protesting against attempts to dismiss Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.^[17] He turned against the restored Supreme Court chief justice after a bench allowed Musharraf to contest the elections in uniform.This is first report said.^[18]

Accusation by Benazir Bhutto[link]

Days after the 2007 Karachi bombings, Benazir Bhutto in a letter to President Musharaf written on 16 October 2007 named Hamid Gul as one of the four persons including the current Intelligence Bureau (IB) Chief Ijaz Shah, the then chief minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, then chief minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim, she suspected were behind the attacks.^[19] Gul responded furiously to these claims. He was arrested on 4 November by the Military police in Islamabad during President Pervez Musharraf's declared state of emergency.^[20]

Terrorism charges[link]

He has acknowledged being a member of banned militant organization Ummah Tameer-e-Nau.^[21] The United States government has included Hamid Gul's name in a list of 4 former ISI officers for inclusion in the list of international terrorists that was sent to UN Secretary General, but China refused.^[22]

Gul has been informed by a senior official in Pakistan's Foreign Ministry that he had been placed on a U.S. watch list of global terrorists, along with several others. He was shown a U.S. document that detailed several charges against him, including allegations that he had ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.^[4]

On 14 December 2008 President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with Newsweek described Hamid Gul as a political ideologue of terror.^[23]

In July 2010, Wikileaks released over 92,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and the end of 2009. In those documents Gul was accused of backing Taliban Insurgency against western forces to disrupt the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.^[24]

See also[link]

	Pakistan portal
	Biography portal

• Establishment (Pakistan)
• History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of Hamid Gul
• Profile of Hamid Gul
• Image of Hamid Gul taken by photographer Declan Walsh of Getty Images Gul's home in Rawalpindi.
• Stein, Jeff. "The audacity of Hamid Gul." The Washington Post. 26 July 2010.
• "Gulled by Hamid Gul." The Washington Times. Friday 4 December 2009.

Bibliography[link]

• Zahid Hussain. Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
• Husain Haqqani. Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.

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Imran Khan Niazi عمران خان نیازی
Personal details
Born	(1952-11-25) 25 November 1952 (age 59) Lahore, West Punjab, Dominion of Pakistan
Political party	Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Spouse(s)	Jemima Khan (1995–2004)
Children	Sulaiman Qasim Khan
Residence	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician Philanthropist Cricketer
Religion	Islam
Website	PTI

Imran Khan Niazi (Urdu: عمران خان نیازی; born 25 November 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics. Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a philanthropist, cricket commentator, Chancellor of the University of Bradford and Founder and Chairman Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.

Arguably Pakistan's most successful cricket captain, Khan played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992 and served as its captain intermittently throughout 1982–1992.^[1] After retiring from cricket at the end of the 1987 World Cup, he was called back to join the team in 1988. At 39, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan's first and only World Cup victory in 1992. He has a record of 3807 runs and 362 wickets in Test cricket, making him one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches.^[2] On 14 July 2010, Khan was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.^[3]

In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of a political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice).^[4] He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007.^[5] Foreign Policy magazine has described him as "Pakistan's Ron Paul".^[6]

Through worldwide fundraising, he has also helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali's Namal College in 2008.

Family, education, and personal life[link]

Imran Khan was born in Lahore, the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum.^[7] Although long settled in Mianwali in Punjab, the family were of Pashtun ethnicity and belonged to the Niazi Shermankhel tribe.^[8] A quiet and shy boy in his youth, Khan grew up with his four sisters in relatively affluent (upper middle-class) circumstances^[9] and received a privileged education. He was educated the Cathedral School in Lahore, the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket, and at Aitchison College, Lahore. In 1972, he enrolled to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics.^[10] Khan's mother hailed from the Burki family which had produced several successful hockey players,^[7] as also cricketers such as Javed Burki and Majid Khan.^[8] Early in life, Khan developed an interest in cricket, which is an extremely popular sport in Pakistan.

Marriage to Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith[link]

On 16 May 1995, Khan married Jemima Goldsmith, in an Islamic ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond register office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths' house in Surrey.^[11] . The marriage, described as "tough" by Khan,^[8] produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999).^[12] As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan".^[13] The marriage ended amicably. Imran has regular access to his children and his relationship with his ex-wife is friendly. Khan now resides in Bani Gala, Islamabad, where he built a farmhouse with the money he gained from selling his London flat. He grows fruit trees, wheat, and keeps cows, while also maintaining a cricket ground for his two sons, who visit during their holidays.^[8]

Cricket career[link]

Pride of Performance Award Recipient
Imran Khan was recipient of the Pride of Performance Award 1983
Presented by	Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Date	1983
Country	Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Khan made a lacklustre first-class cricket debut at the age of sixteen in Lahore. By the start of the 1970s, he was playing for his home teams of Lahore A (1969–70), Lahore B (1969–70), Lahore Greens (1970–71) and, eventually, Lahore (1970–71).^[14] Khan was part of Oxford University's Blues Cricket team during the 1973–75 seasons.^[10] At Worcestershire, where he played county cricket from 1971 to 1976, he was regarded as only an average medium pace bowler. During this decade, other teams represented by Khan include Dawood Industries (1975–76) and Pakistan International Airlines (1975–76 to 1980–81). From 1983 to 1988, he played for Sussex.^[2]

In 1971, Khan made his Test cricket debut against England at Birmingham. Three years later, he debuted in the One Day International (ODI) match, once again playing against England at Nottingham for the Prudential Trophy. After graduating from Oxford and finishing his tenure at Worcestershire, he returned to Pakistan in 1976 and secured a permanent place on his native national team starting from the 1976–77 season, during which they faced New Zealand and Australia.^[14] Following the Australian series, he toured the West Indies, where he met Tony Greig, who signed him up for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.^[2] His credentials as one of the fastest bowlers of the world started to establish when he finished third at 139.7 km/h in a fast bowling contest at Perth in 1978, behind Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding, but ahead of Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts.^[2]

As a fast bowler, Khan reached the peak of his powers in 1982. In 9 Tests, he got 62 wickets at 13.29 each, the lowest average of any bowler in Test history with at least 50 wickets in a calendar year.^[15] In January 1983, playing against India, he attained a Test bowling rating of 922 points. Although calculated retrospectively (ICC player ratings did not exist at the time), Khan's form and performance during this period ranks third in the ICC's All-Time Test Bowling Rankings.^[16]

Khan achieved the all-rounder's triple (securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets) in 75 Tests, the second fastest record behind Ian Botham's 72. He is also established as having the second highest all-time batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 of the batting order.^[17] He played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 1992, against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan retired permanently from cricket six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 World Cup final against England at Melbourne, Australia.^[18] He ended his career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. His highest score was 136 runs. As a bowler, he took 362 wickets in Test cricket, which made him the first Pakistani and world's fourth bowler to do so.^[2] In ODIs, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41. His highest score remains 102 not out. His best ODI bowling is documented at 6 wickets for 14 runs.

Captaincy[link]

At the height of his career, in 1982, the thirty-year-old Khan took over the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team from Javed Miandad. Recalling his initial discomfort with this new role, he later said, "When I became the cricket captain, I couldn’t speak to the team directly I was so shy. I had to tell the manager, I said listen can you talk to them, this is what I want to convey to the team. I mean early team meetings I use to be so shy and embarrassed I couldn’t talk to the team."^[19] As a captain, Khan played 48 Test matches, out of which 14 were won by Pakistan, 8 lost and the rest of 26 were drawn. He also played 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57 and ending one in a tie.^[2]

In the team's second match under his leadership, Khan led them to their first Test win on English soil for 28 years at Lord's.^[20] Khan's first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. He recorded the best Test bowling of his career while taking 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981–82.^[2] He also topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in three Test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he put up a highly acknowledged performance in a home series against the formidable Indian team by taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the end of this series in 1982–83, Khan had taken 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over a period of one year as captain.^[14]

Imran Khan's test career bowling statistics

This same Test series against India, however, also resulted in a stress fracture in his shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. An experimental treatment funded by the Pakistani government helped him recover by the end of 1984 and he made a successful comeback to international cricket in the latter part of the 1984–85 season.^[2]

In 1987, Khan led Pakistan to its first ever Test series win in India, which was followed by Pakistan's first series victory in England the same year.^[20] During the 1980s, his team also recorded three creditable draws against the West Indies. India and Pakistan co-hosted the 1987 World Cup, but neither ventured beyond the semi-finals. Khan retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. In 1988, he was asked to return to the captaincy by the President Of Pakistan, General Zia-Ul-Haq, and on 18 January, he announced his decision to rejoin the team.^[2] Soon after returning to the captaincy, Khan led Pakistan to another winning tour in the West Indies, which he has recounted as "the last time I really bowled well".^[8] He was declared Man of the Series against West Indies in 1988 when he took 23 wickets in 3 tests.^[2]

Khan's career-high as a captain and cricketer came when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting line-up, Khan promoted himself as a batsman to play in the top order along with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. At the age of 39, Khan scored the highest runs of all the Pakistani batsmen and took the winning last wicket himself.^[14]

Post-retirement[link]

In 1994, Khan had admitted that, during Test matches, he "occasionally scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam." He had also added, "Only once did I use an object. When Sussex were playing Hampshire in 1981 the ball was not deviating at all. I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top and it started to move around a lot."^[21] In 1996, Khan successfully defended himself in a libel action brought forth by former English captain and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb over comments they alleged were made by Khan in two articles about the above-mentioned ball-tampering and another article published in an Indian magazine, India Today. They claimed that, in the latter publication, Khan had called the two cricketers "racist, ill-educated and lacking in class." Khan protested that he had been misquoted, saying that he was defending himself after having admitted that he tampered with a ball in a county match 18 years ago.^[22] Khan won the libel case, which the judge labelled a "complete exercise in futility", with a 10–2 majority decision by the jury.^[22]

Since retiring, Khan has written opinion pieces on cricket for various British and Asian newspapers, especially regarding the Pakistani national team. His contributions have been published in India's Outlook magazine,^[23] the Guardian,^[24] the Independent, and the Telegraph. Khan also sometimes appears as a cricket commentator on Asian and British sports networks, including BBC Urdu^[25] and the Star TV network.^[26] In 2004, when the Indian cricket team toured Pakistan after 14 years, he was a commentator on TEN Sports' special live show, Straight Drive,^[27] while he was also a columnist for sify.com for the 2005 India-Pakistan Test series.^[28] He has provided analysis for every cricket World Cup since 1992, which includes providing match summaries for BBC during the 1999 World Cup.^[28]

In November 2009 Khan underwent emergency surgery at Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital to remove an obstruction in his small intestine.^[29]

Social work[link]

For more than four years after retiring from cricket in 1992, Khan focused his efforts solely on social work. By 1991, he had founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a charity organisation bearing the name of his mother, Mrs. Shaukat Khanum. As the Trust's maiden endeavour, Khan established Pakistan's first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding $25 million, raised by Khan from all over the world.^[4] Inspired by the memory of his mother, who died of cancer, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, a charitable cancer hospital with 75 percent free care, opened in Lahore on 29 December 1994.^[8] Khan currently serves as the chairman of the hospital and continues to raise funds through charity and public donations.^[30]

During the 1990s, Khan also served as UNICEF's Special Representative for Sports^[31] and promoted health and immunisation programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.^[32]

On 27 April 2008, Khan's brainchild, a technical college in the Mianwali District called Namal College, was inaugurated. Namal College was built by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT), as chaired by Khan, and was made an associate college of the University of Bradford (of which Khan is Chancellor) in December 2005.^[33] Currently, Khan is building another cancer hospital in Karachi, using his successful Lahore institution as a model. While in London, he also works with the Lord’s Taverners, a cricket charity.^[4]

Political work[link]

Imran Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in World Economic Forum

In 1996, Khan founded a political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which emphasized on anti-corruption policies.^[8][34] The newly formed party was unable to win a seat during the 1997 Pakistani general election.^[35] Khan supported General Pervez Musharraf's military coup in 1999,^[36] believing Musharraf would "end corruption, clear out the political mafias".^[37] According to Khan, he was Musharraf's choice of prime minister in 2002 but turned down the offer.^[38] The 2002 Pakistani general election were held in October across 272 constituencies. Khan anticipated doing well in the elections and was prepared to form a coalition if his party did not get a majority of the vote.^[39] He was elected from the NA-71 constituency of Mianwali and being the only party member to have secured a seat, PTI won only 0.8% of the popular vote. Khan, who was sworn in as an MP on 16 November,^[40] remained part of the Standing Committees on Kashmir and Public Accounts, and expressed legislative interest in Foreign Affairs, Education and Justice.^[41]

On 6 May 2005, Khan became one of the first Muslim figures to criticise a 300-word Newsweek story about the alleged desecration of the Qur'an in a U.S. military prison at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Khan held a press conference to denounce the article and demanded that Gen. Pervez Musharraf secure an apology from the American president George W. Bush for the incident.^[42]. In June 2007, the federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr. Sher Afghan Khan Niazi and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party filed separate ineligibility references against Khan, asking for his disqualification as member of the National Assembly on grounds of immorality. Both references, filed on the basis of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan, were rejected on 5 September.^[43]

On 2 October 2007, as part of the All Parties Democratic Movement, Khan joined 85 other MPs to resign from Parliament in protest of the Presidential election scheduled for 6 October, which General Musharraf was contesting without resigning as army chief.^[5] On 3 November 2007, Khan was put under house arrest at his father's home hours after President Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. Khan had demanded the death penalty for Musharraf after the imposition of emergency rule, which he equated to "committing treason". The next day, on 4 November, Khan escaped and went into peripatetic hiding.^[44] He eventually came out of hiding on 14 November to join a student protest at the University of the Punjab.^[45] At the rally, Khan was captured by students from the Jamaat-i-Islami political party, who claimed that Khan was an uninvited nuisance at the rally, and they handed him over to the police, who charged him under the Anti-terrorism act for allegedly inciting people to pick up arms, calling for civil disobedience, and for spreading hatred.^[46].

On 30 October, 2011, Imran Khan changed the political picture of the country by addressing more than 100,000 supporters, challenging the policies of the current government, calling this new change a "tsunami" against the ruling parties,^[47] followed by another successful public gathering in Karachi on 25 December, 2011.^[48] Since then Imran Khan has become a real threat for the current ruling parties and future political prospect in Pakistan. According to International Republican Institute (IRI)'s survey, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tops the list of popular parties in Pakistan both at the national as well as provincial level, leaving Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peopleís Party (PPP) behind.^[49]

Ideology[link]

Khan's proclaimed political platform and declarations include: Islamic values, to which he rededicated himself in the 1990s; liberal economics, with the promise of deregulating the economy and creating a welfare state; decreased bureaucracy and the implementation of anti-corruption laws, to create and ensure a clean government; the establishment of an independent judiciary; overhaul of the country's police system; and an anti-militant vision for a democratic Pakistan.^[18][26][50]

Khan told Britain's Daily Telegraph, "I want Pakistan to be a welfare state and a genuine democracy with a rule of law and an independent judiciary."^[18] Other ideas he has presented include a requirement of all students to spend a year after graduation teaching in the countryside and cutting down the over-staffed bureaucracy in order to send them to teach too.^[51] "We need decentralisation, empowering people at the grass roots," he has said.^[52]

Criticism[link]

Khan had a child out of wedlock with Ana-Luisa White (Sita White).^[53] This was confirmed by a judgement of paternity rendered by a Superior Court of the State of California for the county of Los Angeles in favour of White^[54] wherein it was held that Khan was the father of a female child born on June 15, 1992.^{[55][56][not in citation given]} Khan did not challenge that judgement and in 2004 accepted the child as his daughter. He and his wife Jemima became the girls guardians.^{[57][58] [59] [60] [61]}

During the 1970s and 1980s, Khan became known as a socialite due to his "non-stop partying" at London nightclubs such as Annabel's and Tramp, though he claims to have hated English pubs and to never drink alcohol.^{[4][8][26][42]} He gained notoriety in London gossip columns for romancing young debutantes such as Susannah Constantine, Lady Liza Campbell and the artist Emma Sergeant.^[8]

Khan is often dismissed as a political lightweight^[45] and a celebrity outsider in Pakistan,^[19] where national newspapers also refer to him as a "spoiler politician".^[62] The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, has asserted that Khan is "a sick person who has been a total failure in politics and is alive just because of the media coverage".^[63] Political observers say the crowds he draws are attracted by his cricketing celebrity, and the public has been reported to view him as a figure of entertainment rather than a serious political authority.^[51]

Declan Walsh in The Guardian newspaper in England in 2005 described Khan as a "miserable politician," observing that, "Khan's ideas and affiliations since entering politics in 1996 have swerved and skidded like a rickshaw in a rainshower... He preaches democracy one day but gives a vote to reactionary mullahs the next."^[64] The charge constantly raised against Khan is that of hypocrisy and opportunism, including what has been called his life's "playboy to puritan U-turn."^[19] Political commentator Najam Sethi, stated that, "A lot of the Imran Khan story is about backtracking on a lot of things he said earlier, which is why this doesn’t inspire people."^[19]. He is also criticized for being a puppet of Pakistan's 'establishment'.^[65]

Awards and honours[link]

Khan in Germany

• Khan is featured in the University of Oxford's Hall of Fame and has been an honorary fellow of Oxford's Keble College.^[31]
• In 1976 as well as 1980, Khan was awarded The Cricket Society Wetherall Award for being the leading all-rounder in English first-class cricket.
• In 1983, he was also named Wisden Cricketer of the Year
• In 1983, he had received the President’s Pride of Performance Award
• In 1985, Sussex Cricket Society Player of the Year
• In 1990, Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year^[14]
• In 1992, Khan was given Pakistan's civil award, the Hilal-i-Imtiaz
• On 8 July 2004, Khan was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Asian Jewel Awards in London, for "acting as a figurehead for many international charities and working passionately and extensively in fund-raising activities.^[66]
• On 7 December 2005, Khan was appointed the fifth Chancellor of the University of Bradford, where he is also a patron of the Born in Bradford research project.
• On 13 December 2007, Khan received the Humanitarian Award at the Asian Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur for his efforts in setting up the first cancer hospital in Pakistan.^[67]
• On 5 July 2008, he was one of several veteran Asian cricketers presented special silver jubilee awards at the inaugural Asian cricket Council (ACC) award ceremony in Karachi.^[68]
• In 2009, at International Cricket Council's centennial year celebration, Khan was one of fifty-five cricketers inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.^[69]
• In 2011 he was given Jinnah award.

Writings by Khan[link]

Khan has published six works of non-fiction, including an autobiography co-written with Patrick Murphy. 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 leatherbound 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."^[70]

Books

• Khan, Imran (1989). Imran Khan's cricket skills. London : Golden Press in association with Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-56349-9. 
• Khan, Imran & Murphy, Patrick (1983). Imran: The autobiography of Imran Khan. Pelham Books. ISBN 0-7207-1489-3. 
• Khan, Imran (1991). Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan. Chatto & Windus. ISBN 0-7011-3527-1. 
• Khan, Imran (1992). All Round View. Mandarin. ISBN 0-7493-1499-0. 
• Khan, Imran (1993). Warrior Race: A Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans. Chatto Windus. ISBN 0-7011-3890-4. 
• Khan, Imran (2011). Pakistan: A Personal History. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-593-06774-6. 

Articles

• Guardian comments, political and cricket commentary by Khan
• Telegraph columns, sports articles penned by Khan from 2000 to present
• We must address the root causes of this terror, Khan's editorial in the Independent following the 11 September attacks
• Benazir Bhutto has only herself to blame, Khan's 2007 editorial on Bhutto's return to Pakistan

In popular culture[link]

After the permission from him, Kaptaan is a biographical film about him.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Tennant, Evo (1996). Imran Khan. Trafalgar Square. ISBN 0-575-05936-2. 

External links[link]

• Player profile: Imran Khan from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Imran Khan from CricketArchive
• Player Profile: Imran Khan from Yahoo! Cricket
• Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Khan's political party
• Chancellor: Imran Khan at the University of Bradford
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Imran Khan on Charlie Rose
• Imran Khan at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Imran Khan in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Imran Khan collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• PTI to move SC against speaker's decision today, says Imran Khan, The News International, May 28, 2012]
• PTI will form next government, says Imran Khan, Geo News Pakistan]

Articles

• The NS Interview: Imran Khan Mehdi Hasan, New Statesman, 20 August 2010
• Imran Khan's revolution, Murtaza Razvi, Dawn, 27 April 2011
• Imran Khan: Pakistan's next leader?, Frost Over the World, Aljazeera English, 10 December 2011
• Thousands rally for Pakistan's Imran Khan, Aljazeera English, 25 December 2011
• Hundreds of thousands gather at PTI rally in Karachi, Dawn, 25 December 2011

• Imran stands out, Adiah AfrazThe News International, 27 May 2012

• The Imran that we know Shafqat Mahmood, The News International, 27 May 2012