Pakistan PM Imran Khan turns 69 today: Take a look at some controversies linked to cricketer-politician

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan turned 69 years old on Tuesday. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was born on the 5th of October 1952 to a well-off Pashtun family in Mianwali. Political leaders, celebrities, fans, and PTI supporters took to social media to wish the prime minister his birthday.

 

The Pakistani PM is not new to controversies and several of his statements have raised eyebrows across the world. During his three-year tenure in office, Khan has made controversial, sometimes hilarious, and bizarre comments evoking sharp criticism from all quarters.

Reacting to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the Pakistani PM had said that describing the war-ravaged country has "broken the shackles of slavery'. While his statement raised eyebrows across the world, he even endorsed the Taliban and said that his government will work closely with them.

The PTI chief had recently stirred another controversy when he linked cases of sexual assault with the misuse of mobile phones. While speaking about the 'correct usage' of modern technology, Khan had in August said that sexual crimes are on the rise in Pakistan due to the "misuse" of mobile phones.

In an interview with Axios’ journalist Jonathan Swan on HBO in June, the Pak PM had said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense.” Following widespread flak, he backtracked on his remark saying he would "never say such a stupid thing."

The cricketer-politician grabbed eyeballs after he shared a six-year-old video shot in Bangladesh from his verified Twitter handle in 2020 describing it as “Indian police’s pogrom against Muslims in UP.”

The flamboyant PM of Pakistan once again courted controversy when he described slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a 'shaheed' (martyr) while speaking in the Parliament. In view of his criticism, Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had to clarify that it was a "slip of the tongue".

Imran Khan has recently put the blame of English medium education system, inherited from the British Rulers, for rising cultural differences and people’s growing alienation with Islam.

 

The PTI leader said that the British built such schools to "create an elite class in (undivided) India which is Indian in colour but thinks like us (the British), has our attitudes and through whom we can govern such a big continent". In an interview with Geo News, he blamed ‘obscenity’ for rising sexual violence cases in the country.

The Pakistan PM had to face major embarrassment when he said, "New Zealand with a population of 40-50 lakh defeated India with a population of 1 billion and 300 crore in the World Test Championship final." It may be noted that India has an estimated population of around 136 crore.

In 2018, Pakistan PM had heaped praise on China for which he was heavily trolled online. Khan was brutally trolled for claiming that China is about to make trains that will run faster than light.

During a speech at the Envoys Conference on Economic Diplomacy in Islamabad in 2018, Khan said that Africa was an “emerging country.” In 2019, again, Khan made another gaffe. He said that Germany and Japan share borders, while addressing an event in Tehran.