Who is Imran Khan? How cricket legend became Prime Minister of Pakistan

Pakistan cricket icon Imran Khan has declared victory in the race to be the country's next Prime Minister.

It is the crowning political achievement for a man who made his name not as a statesman but as a sporting hero.


Since finishing his sporting career as one of the world's most famous cricketers, he has become an outspoken campaigner against political corruption.

And on Thursday he declared victory in Pakistan's general elections - just 22 years after founding his political party.

Here's everything you need to know about his journey from cricket star to world leader.

Imran Khan's cricket career

Khan was born in October 1952 in Lahore, Pakistan . He started his schooling at the private Aitchison school in Lohore, and later attended the Royal Grammar School, Worcester.

He completed an undergraduate degree in economics at Keble College, Oxford.

He first started playing cricket for his college at the age of 13, and would later play for Worcestershire.

He made his debut for Pakistan in 1971 at the age of 18, and by 1982 had become the national team's captain.

Khan is commonly regarded as one of the greatest ever fast bowlers. In a glittering career he played 88 Test matches and scored 3807.

He retired from cricket after winning the World Cup in 1992 as one of Pakistan’s all-time most successful players.

How did Imran Khan become Pakistan's Prime Minister?

After his retirement from cricket, Khan became more focused on politics.

In 1996 he founded the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a centrist party opposed to the centre-left Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and conservative Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Khan went on hunger strike in 2007 as a protest against emergency rule in Pakistan. It came a week after he was jailed as part of a crackdown on political opponents by then-president Pervez Musharraf.

PTI grew rapidly over the two decades, and is now one of the major political forces in Pakistan. In the 2013 elections it overtook the PPP to become the official opposition party in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.

In the 2018 election Khan's party went up against the ruling PML, whose former leader Nawaz Sharif was removed from office as Prime Minister over corruption charges in 2017 and later jailed.

The election campaign has been marred by violence, delays in ballot counting and claims of vote rigging. A suicide bombing killed 31 people near a polling station in Quetta, capital of the Baluchistan province.

Khan declared victory in the election on 26 July 2018, but looked unlikely to hit the majority of seats needed to form a solo government, meaning he would have to look to form a coalition.

Who is Imran Khan's wife?

In the 1970s and 80s, Khan had an image as a playboy. He was often seen partying at London nightclubs, and was linked to a series of socialites and minor aristocrats.

His first marriage, in May 1995, was to journalist and documentary producer Jemima Goldsmith - daughter of finance tycoon Sir James Goldsmith.


Jemima converted to Islam before their wedding, and they married in a short ceremony in Paris. They had two sons together, Sulaiman Isa and Kasim.

The pair divorced in June 2004, with Khan saying: "my political life made it difficult for her to adapt to life in Pakistan."

His second marriage came in January 2015 to British-Pakistani journalist Reham Khan, but the pair announced their divorce just nine months later.

Khan's political party confirmed in February 2018 that he had married for the third time, this time to his spiritual advisor Bushra Manika.

He later revealed that he didn't see the face of his third wife

He said: "I proposed to her without seeing her because she had never met me without her face being covered with a full veil."