A capital city (or just, capital) is the area of a country, province, region, or state considered to enjoy primary status; although there are exceptions, a capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and is usually fixed by law or by the constitution. An alternative term is political capital, but this phrase has a second meaning based on an alternate sense of the word capital. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent area.

The word capital derives from the Latin caput meaning "head".

The seats of government in major sub-state jurisdictions are often called "capitals," but this is typically only the case in countries with some degree of federalism, where major sub-state legal jurisdictions have elements of sovereignty. In unitary states, an "administrative centre" or other similar term is typically used for such locations besides the national capital city. For example, the seat of government in a state of the United States is usually called its "capital", but the main city in a region of the United Kingdom is usually not called such, even though in Ireland, a county's main town is usually called its "capital". On the other hand, the four countries of the United Kingdom do have capital cities: Scotland – Edinburgh, Wales – Cardiff, Northern Ireland – Belfast, and England – London. Counties in England, Wales and Scotland have historic county towns, which are often not the largest settlement within the county and often are no longer administrative centres, as many historical counties are now only ceremonial, and administrative boundaries are different.

In Canada, there is a federal capital, and the ten provinces and three territories all have capital cities. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil (including the famous cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, capitals of their respective states), and Australia all have capital cities. For example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, South Australia; Brisbane, Queensland; Hobart, Tasmania; Melbourne, Victoria; Perth, Western Australia; and Sydney, New South Wales. In Australia, the term "capital cities" is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, each of its constituent states (or Länder - plural of Land) has its own capital city, such as Wiesbaden, Mainz, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, and Munich. Likewise, each of the republics of the Russian Federation has its own capital city.

In the lower administrative subdivisions in various English-speaking countries, terms such as county town, county seat, and borough seat are usually used.

Origins of capital cities[link]

Historically, the major economic center of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Baghdad, Berlin, Constantinople, London, Athens, Madrid, Moscow, Ancient Rome, Beijing, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Vienna. The capital city naturally attracts politically motivated people and those whose skills are needed for efficient administration of national or imperial governments, such as lawyers, political scientists, bankers, journalists, and public policy makers. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e.g. Constantinople (more than one religion), Rome (the Roman Catholic Church), Jerusalem (more than one religion), Ancient Baghdad, London (the Anglican Church), Moscow (the Russian Orthodox Church), Belgrade (the Serbian Orthodox Church), Paris, and Peking.

A capital city that is also the prime economic, cultural, or intellectual centre of a nation or an empire is sometimes referred to as a primate city. Examples are Athens, Beijing, Belgrade, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Copenhagen, Dublin, Lima, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Manila, Montevideo, Mexico City, Nairobi, Paris, Prague, Rome, Seoul, Sofia, Stockholm, Tokyo, Vienna, Vilnius, and Warsaw.

The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal. Traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e.g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its capital city, as occurred at Babylon and Cahokia.

Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such: for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Melbourne, Paris, Toronto and Wellington. They are recognised as capitals as a matter of convention, and because all or almost all the country's central political institutions, such as government departments, supreme court, legislature, embassies, etc., are located in or near them.

Planned capital cities[link]

Many current capital cities were deliberately planned by government to house the seat of government of the nation or subdivision. Some planned capitals include Abuja, Nigeria (1991); Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil (1855); Ankara, Turkey (1923); Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil (1897); Dhaka, Bangladesh (1971); Brasília, Brazil (1960); Canberra, Australia (1927); Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil (1933); Islamabad, Pakistan (1960); Frankfort, Kentucky (1792); Jefferson City, Missouri (1821); Jhongsing New Village, Taiwan, Republic of China (1955); New Delhi, India (1911); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1889); Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (1857); Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil (1989); Quezon City, Philippines (1948–1976); Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (1792); Washington D.C., USA (1800); and Wellington, New Zealand (1865).

These cities satisfy one or both of the following criteria:

1. A deliberately planned city that was built expressly to house the seat of government, superseding a capital city that had been located in an established population center. There have been various reasons for this, including overcrowding in that major metropolitan area, and the desire to place the capital city in a location with a better climate (usually a less tropical one).
2. A town that was chosen as a compromise among two or more cities (or other political divisions), none of which was willing to concede to the other(s) the privilege of being the capital city. Usually, the new capital is geographically located roughly equidistant between the competing population centers.

Some examples of the second situation include:

• Canberra, Australia, which was chosen as a compromise located between Melbourne and Sydney.
• Frankfort, Kentucky, which is midway between Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky.
• Ottawa, Canada, which is located along the boundary between the Province of Quebec and the Province of Ontario - the two most populous of the ten provinces, midway between their provincial capitals, Quebec City and Toronto, and near Montreal which was until the 1970s the most populous city of Canada (Toronto is now the most populous).
• Wellington, New Zealand, which is located at the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand, the more populous island, immediately across the Cook Strait from the South Island. The capital city was moved there from Auckland, at the northern extremity of the North Island, due to fears that the then gold-rich South Island would decide to become a separate colony.

Changes in a nation's political regime sometimes result in the designation of a new capital. The newly independent Kazakhstan moved its capital to the existing city of Aqmola. Naypyidaw was founded in Burma's interior as the former capital, Rangoon, was claimed to be too overcrowded.^[1]

Washington, DC, USA[link]

When the United States of America established its present constitution in 1787, the question of its capital city arose. Several cities wished to be the national capital, including Boston; New York City; Philadelphia; and Richmond, Virginia; but none of these was willing to concede this honor to any of the others. There was also rivalry between the proposed thirteen states as to which one would contain the capital city. A compromise was reached to establish a federal district separate from any of the states, which would contain a new capital city. The capital district was given the name District of Columbia, and the capital city of Washington was founded within it. In 1800, Washington was ready to house the federal government.

The District of Columbia was the first such district to be set aside for a capital city, and this arrangement has been followed by Australia (the Australian Capital Territory), Mexico (the Federal District), Pakistan (Islamabad Capital Territory) and Brazil (Distrito Federal).

Unusual capital city arrangements[link]

A number of cases exist where states have multiple capitals, and there are also several states that have no capital.

• Chile: Santiago is the capital even though the National Congress of Chile meets in Valparaíso.
• Czech Republic: Prague is the sole constitutional capital. Brno is home to all three of the country's highest courts, making it the de facto capital of the Czech judicial branch.
• Finland: During the summer, the President resides at the Kultaranta in Naantali; presidential sessions of the government are held there as well.
• France: The French constitution does not recognise any capital city in France. Paris is de facto capital of France (seat of the presidency, the government, the national assembly and the senate), but the parliament holds its joint congresses in Versailles.
• Germany: The official capital Berlin is home to the parliament and the highest bodies of the executive branch (consisting of the ceremonial presidency and effective chancellery). Various ministries are located in the former West German capital of Bonn, which now has the title Federal City. The Federal Constitutional Court has its seat in Karlsruhe, which as a consequence is sometimes called Germany's "judicial capital"; none of Germany's highest judicial organs are located in Berlin.
• Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur is the constitutional capital but the federal administrative centre was moved 30 kilometres south to Putrajaya in the late 1990s. The parliament remains in Kuala Lumpur.
• Myanmar (Burma): Naypyidaw was designated the national capital in 2005, the same year it was founded, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Yangon (Rangoon).
• Nauru: Nauru, a tiny country of only 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi), has no distinct capital city, and thus has a capital district instead.
• Sri Lanka: Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is the official capital and the location of the parliament, while the former capital, Colombo, is now designated as the "commercial capital". However, many government offices are still located in Colombo. Both cities are in the Colombo District.
• South Africa: The administrative capital is Pretoria, the legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein. This is the outcome of the compromise that created the Union of South Africa in 1910.
• Switzerland: Bern is the Federal City of Switzerland and functions as de facto capital. However, the Swiss Supreme Court is located in Lausanne.
• Tanzania: Dodoma was designated the national capital in 1973, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Dar es Salaam.
• Monaco, Singapore and the Vatican City are city-states, and thus do not have a capital city distinct from the country as a whole.

Capitals that are not the seat of government[link]

Countries in the world where capital and seat of government are currently separated:

• Benin: Porto-Novo is the official capital, but Cotonou is the seat of government.
• Bolivia: Sucre is still the constitutional capital, but most of the national government long ago abandoned that region for La Paz.
• Côte d'Ivoire: Yamoussoukro was designated the national capital in 1983, but most government offices and embassies are still located in Abidjan.
• Netherlands: Amsterdam is the constitutional national capital even though the Dutch government, parliament, supreme court, and the residential and work palace of the queen are all located in The Hague. (For more details see: Capital of the Netherlands).

International entities[link]

• European Union (see details): Brussels is generally considered as the capital of the European Union alongside Strasbourg where the European Parliament has its main seat and votes^[2] because it hosts the major institutions of the EU. The judiciary and some of the executive's work are located in Luxembourg and other bodies and agencies in other cities. Although the main seats are fixed in the EU's treaties which form its legal basis, they do not use the term "capital" for any city.
• United Nations: New York City is the main meeting place of the highest bodies of the UN, but significant parts of its structure exist in other cities, such as Vienna, Geneva, Nairobi and The Hague.
• African Union: Addis Ababa and Midrand
• Union of South American Nations: Cochabamba and Quito
• Interpol: Lyon
• International Committee of the Red Cross: Geneva

Capitals in military strategy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The capital city is almost always a primary target in a war, as capturing it usually guarantees capture of much of the enemy government, victory for the attacking forces, or at the very least demoralization for the defeated forces.

In ancient China, where governments were massive centralized bureaucracies with little flexibility on the provincial level, a dynasty could easily be toppled with the fall of its capital. In the Three Kingdoms period, both Shu and Wu fell when their respective capitals of Chengdu and Jianye fell. The Ming dynasty relocated its capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where they could more effectively control the generals and troops guarding the borders from Mongols and Manchus. The Ming was destroyed when the Li Zicheng took their seat of power, and this pattern repeats itself in Chinese history, until the fall of the traditional Confucian monarchy in the 20th century. After the Qing Dynasty's collapse, decentralization of authority and improved transportation and communication technologies allowed both the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists to rapidly relocate capitals and keep their leadership structures intact during the great crisis of Japanese invasion.

National capitals were arguably less important as military objectives in other parts of the world, including the West, because of socioeconomic trends toward localized authority, a strategic modus operandi especially popular after the development of feudalism and reaffirmed by the development of democratic and capitalistic philosophies. In 1204, after the Latin Crusaders captured the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Byzantine forces were able to regroup in several provinces; provincial noblemen managed to reconquer the capital after 60 years and preserve the empire for another 200 years after that. The British forces sacked various American capitals repeatedly during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, but American forces could still carry on fighting from the countryside, where they enjoyed support from local governments and the traditionally independent civilian frontiersmen. Exceptions to these generalizations include highly centralized states such as France, whose centralized bureaucracies could effectively coordinate far-flung resources, giving the state a powerful advantage over less coherent rivals, but risking utter ruin if the capital were taken. In their military strategies, traditional enemies of France such as Prussia (in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871) focused on the capture of Paris.

Distances between capital cities (nearest and farthest)[link]

• Nearest capital cities

The closest capital cities of two sovereign countries are Vatican City, Vatican, and Rome, Italy, one of which is inside the other (the distance between the middle points, St. Peter's Square/Piazza Venezia is about 2 km).

The two second closest capital cities between two sovereign countries are Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, which are about 1.6 km (0.99 mi) apart, one upstream from the other on different banks of the Congo River (the distance between the middle points is about 10 km).

Vienna and Bratislava, sometimes erroneously considered the two closest capitals, are 55 km (34 mi) apart.

• Farthest away from each other

The capitals farthest away from each other are Wellington, New Zealand, and Madrid, Spain, which are 19,880 km (12,353 mi) apart. This is very nearly the maximum possible, since they are only 160 km (99 mi) away from being antipodes, or directly opposite each other on a globe.

• Farthest away among two sovereign countries that share a border

The greatest distance between the capitals of two sovereign countries that share a border is 6,423 km (3,991 mi), between Pyongyang, North Korea and Moscow, Russia.

• Farthest away from the closest other capital city (remoteness)

The longest distance from one capital of a sovereign country to the one closest to it is 2,330 km (1,448 mi) between Wellington, New Zealand, and Canberra, Australia. The relation is reciprocal - each one is nearer to the other than to the capital of any other sovereign country.

See also[link]

• List of capital cities
• List of former national capitals
• South American capital cities
• Temporary capital
• List of capital cities by altitude
• List of capital cities by relative size
• List of capitals outside the territories they serve

References[link]

Look up capital in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Capital in architecture : ancient Corinthian capital in the Great Mosque of kairouan, Tunisia.

Capital may refer to:

• Capital city, the area of a country, province, region, or state, regarded as enjoying primary status, usually but not always the seat of the government
• Capital (economics), a factor of production that is not wanted for itself but for its ability to help in producing other goods
• Capital (architecture), the crowning member of a column or a pilaster
• Capital letter, an upper-case letter in a writing system

Forms of capital[link]

• Capital requirement or "bank capital", the requirement that banks keep certain monetary reserves
• Cultural capital, the advantage individuals can gain from mastering the cultural tastes of a privileged group
• Financial capital, any form of wealth capable of being employed in the production of more wealth
• Human capital, workers' skills and abilities as regards their contribution to an economy
• Infrastructural capital, means of production other than natural capital.
• Natural capital, the resources of an ecosystem that yields a flow of goods and services into the future
• Physical capital, any non-human asset made by humans and then used in production
• Political capital, means by which a politician or political party may gain support or popularity
• Social capital, the value of social networks to individuals embedded in them
• Working capital, short term capital needed by the company to finance its operations

Journalism and books[link]

• Capital (French magazine), a French-language magazine
• Capital (German magazine), a German-language magazine
• Capital (newspaper), a Bulgarian business-oriented weekly newspaper
• Capital (Romanian newspaper), a Romanian business-oriented weekly newspaper
• Capital Ethiopia, also known as Capital, an Ethiopian business-oriented weekly English-language newspaper
• Das Kapital, by Karl Marx
• The Capital, a daily newspaper based in Annapolis, Maryland, United States

Colleges, seminaries, and universities[link]

• Capital College or Penn State Harrisburg, in Middletown, Pennsylvania
• Capital Community College, a community college in Hartford, Connecticut
• Capital Bible Seminary, the seminary component of Washington Bible College with its main campus in Lanham, Maryland
• Capital University, a four-year private university in Columbus, Ohio
• Capitol College, a private, non-profit, and non-sectarian college located just south of Laurel, Maryland

Sports[link]

• Capital Clube de Futebol, a Brazilian football (soccer) club
• Edinburgh Capitals, a Scottish ice-hockey team
• Edmonton Capitals, a baseball team
• Washington Capitals, a National Hockey League Team (USA)

Other uses[link]

• Capital Airlines (UK), an airline operating from the UK from 1987 to 1992
• Capital (fortification), a proportion of a bastion
• Capital punishment, the sentence of death
• Capital (radio network), a network of nine Independent Local Radio stations in the United Kingdom
• Capital Radio (disambiguation), various radio stations named Capital
• Capitals (typeface), a small-caps serif typeface
• Capital ship, a classification of a naval vessel

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Capital"
• All pages with titles containing "Capital"
• List of national capitals
• Capitalism
• Capitalization (disambiguation)
• Cap (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Al Hunt
Al Hunt checking his BlackBerry at the Verizon Center, February 3, 2007
Born	(1942-12-04) December 4, 1942 (age 69)
Alma mater	Wake Forest University
Occupation	executive editor, news anchor
Notable credit(s)	Bloomberg News's Washington editor, anchor of Political Capital on Bloomberg Television
Spouse	Judy Woodruff
Children	three

Albert R. Hunt Jr. (born December 4, 1942) is the executive Washington editor for Bloomberg News, a subsidiary of Bloomberg L.P. Hunt hosts the Sunday morning talk show Political Capital on Bloomberg Television, which airs on Friday night.

Personal life[link]

Hunt graduated from The Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 1960. He attended Wake Forest University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science and worked for the Old Gold & Black. He is married to Judy Woodruff of PBS. He has three children, including a son born with severe spina bifida. He was first married to Margaret O'Toole of Pittsburgh.

Career[link]

Before graduating from Wake Forest University, Hunt worked for the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Winston-Salem Journal. In 1965, he became a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York, before transferring to its Boston bureau in 1967, then to the Washington, D.C., bureau in 1969.

Prior to joining Bloomberg News in January 2005, Hunt worked for the Wall Street Journal. During his 35 years in the newspaper’s Washington bureau, he was a congressional and national political reporter, a bureau chief and, most recently, executive Washington editor. For 11 years, Hunt wrote the weekly column, "Politics & People." Hunt also directed the paper's political polls for 20 years and served as president of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and a board member of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., a Dow Jones subsidiary.

Appearances[link]

Hunt has also served as a periodic panelist on NBC's Meet the Press and PBS' Washington Week in Review, as well as a political analyst on CBS Morning News, and a weekly panelist on CNN's Capital Gang. He was also a panelist on Evans, Novak, Hunt, & Shields. He is co-author of a series of books published by the American Enterprise Institute, including The American Elections of 1980, The American Elections of 1982 and The American Elections of 1984. In 1987, he co-authored Elections American Style for the Brookings Institution. In 2002, he contributed an essay about campaign finance reform for Caroline Kennedy's Profiles in Courage for Our Time.

Awards[link]

In 1999, Hunt received the William Allen White Foundation's national citation, one of the highest honors in journalism. In 1995, he and his wife, then CNN anchor Judy Woodruff, received the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism from the University of South Dakota. In 1976, Hunt received a Raymond Clapper Award for Washington reporting.

Of Note[link]

Hunt is a member of the Wake Forest board of trustees; the board of the Children's Charities in Washington; and the advisory board of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. He teaches a course on the press and politics at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communications.

On June 18, 2008, Hunt was one of 10 people chosen to remember journalist Tim Russert, who had died days before, at his memorial service at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Notes[link]

1. ^ "1986: A Life-Changing Year", Washington Post, July 25, 1999 [1]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Al Hunt on Charlie Rose
• Al Hunt at the Internet Movie Database
• Al Hunt at the Notable Names Database
• Al Hunt Leaves ‘WSJ’ for Bloomberg, 2004
• Interview With Al Hunt, 2005
• Al Hunt's Memorial to Tim Russert at the Kennedy Center - video, 2008 at the Huffington Post

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2010)

Sasha Issenberg is an American journalist. His articles have been published in Philadelphia Magazine, Slate, The Washington Monthly, the Boston Globe, Monocle and George Magazine, where he was a contributing editor. He is also the author of the book The Sushi Economy, about sushi and globalization, which was published in May 2007.

External links[link]

• Issenberg's book website
• Washington Monthly account of Brooks episode
• Philadelphia Inquirer interview
• The article fact-checking Brooks
• Michael Kinsley review

This article about a United States journalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

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.