Former captain of Pakistan''s cricket team and an excellent player Imran Khan wields a celebrity status around the world. His consistently good performance in the field together with his outstanding good looks has endowed him with charm that has become legendary.

Imran Khan was born in Lahore on 25th November, 1953. He belongs to a rich family. He had his early education in Lahore and then was sent to England for further studies.

Khan made his test debut for Pakistan in 1971. after this he returned to Worcester Grammar school. He went up to Oxford in 1973 and captained the side the following year. In the field he displayed his all round as an outstanding batsman, bowler and fielder. At first he player for Worcestershire and then for Sussex. This "Lion of Lahore" later led the Pakistan team to many a success in the Test and the World cup matches. It was in 1992, before retiring that Khan led his team to victory in the World Cup against England.

Throughout his career he maintained a debonair lifestyle. His handsome rugged looks were the camera''s delight and khan was always in the news. His popularity in the international circles was immense.

Post retirement Khan decided to stand for public office in Pakistan. His was a crusade against corruption which he felt had infested all crevices of Pakistani life. He headed a party called Tehriq-e-Insaaf. Though the party did not win any seal in the elections the spirit of the party was praise worthy. As Khan later said, "Tehriq-e-Insaaf was the first party in Pakistan to start talking about the VIP culture, this curse where human beings are treated unequally. "Khan''s failure in this new venture has been accredited by many to his lack of political experience. By many journalists all around the world Imran was heralded as the .... " first politician in Pakistan who has raised his voice against corruption........ Imran''s emergence in politics has run a chill through our corrupt elitist system".

The death of Imran''s mother Shaukat Khanum in 1985 from liver cancer moved Khan to build the 550 million rupee, 250-bed Shaukat Khanum Memorial cancer Hospital in Lahore. The hospital has a magnificent building and the latest equipment with the most well qualified team of doctors. In a barnstorming 30 day tour he raised 11.5 million rupees in 45 days. More than 300,000 Pakistanis have contributed to this laudable venture.

The first phase of the hospital was inaugurated in 1994 by a 10 year old cancer patient, Sumaira. This humane gesture characteristically embodies the spirit of the hospital. Reitterating the same spirit Mr. Khan said " there will be no VIP room or car parking in the hospital and the poor will be given free treatment. It is criminal to ask the poor to pay." This charitable work has gained Imran Khan the respect and goodwill that he deserves. A day after the inauguration an estimated 100,000 crowd at an entertainment function greeted the criketer turned social worker by waving national flags and shouting "Wazir-e-Azam Imran Khan" (Prime Minister Imran Khan).

To build a mass campaign for raising the literacy level in Pakistan and cleaning the environment are something Khan associates himself closely with. " If the government cannot do this, which I don''t think any of these governments can, looking at the past record, then private individuals must come forward," Mr. Khan has said display a sense of purpose and commitment.

Shedding his playboy image of his cricketing days Imran Khan married Jemima Goldsmith, the 21 year old daughter of a Jewish tycoon in a Muslim ceremony on 16th May 1995 in Paris, France. Then later they took marriage vows again in a civil ceremony at Richmond on 21st June. Before the marriage Jemima converted to Islam. On 18th November 1996, she gave birth to baby boy named Suliman Isa. Although Imran was born a Muslim he did not categorise himself to be a staunch follower of Islam. Imran Khan traces this lack of allegiance to Islam as a definite residue of the colonial hang over. In the post colonial Pakistan Imran said, "The Islamic class was not considered to be serious, and when I left school I was considered amongst the elite of the country because I could speak English and wore western clothes. Despite periodically shouting Pakistan Zindabad at school functions, I considered my own culture backward and Islam an out dated religion" Living between two cultures did not make things easier for Imran. At Oxford he began to see the exploitation of Islam by political activists. They practiced selective Islam in which the very essence of the religion was lost. This further drove Imran away from Islam. It was with the publishing of Salman Rushdie''s Satanic Verses and the anti Islam allegations raged by the Muslim community that Imran was faced with a choice- either to fight or to flee. He decided to defend Islam as he realized that the attacks on Islam were unfair. Thus, started his odyssey to discover the spirit of Islam. To arm himself for the battle in defending Islam Imran read scholars like Ali Shariati, Mohammad Asad, Iqbal, Gai Eaton and the Holy Quran. This through reading of the Islamic texts gave new direction to Imran''s life. He said ,".........I have become a better human being.....almighty gave me so much to me, in turn I must use that blessing to help the less privileged.."

Today Imran Khan lives in Lahore fully committed to realizing his dreams of a better Pakistan. He believes life is meant to be lived and that the past is over, the future does not exist and that the only time that really counts is the present. The essence of life is to move on. As the former captain put it, " I rarely want to sit back and talk about my cricketing days. That''s over and finished with....I learnt a lot and then moved ahead".