NEW YORK, April 19 (NNN-APP)- Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been named among the ‘100 Most Influential people’ of 2019 by Time, a mass-circulation US magazine, with a senior journalist underscoring his potential to turn Pakistan around towards a better future.
The prestigious list, unveiled on Wednesday, selected the “influential people” under four categories: leaders, pioneers, artists, icons and titans.
Journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote that Imran Khan, who took over as the chief executive some eight months ago, “still generates the broadest hope among young and old that he can turn Pakistan around, and help make South Asia an ocean of peace rather than a state of permanent conflict.”
“Pakistan is at a critical crossroads, and the man in charge is the closest it has to a rock star,” Rashid wrote introducing the prime minister. “Imran Khan captained the team that won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, built a world-class cancer hospital in Lahore, then a top-notch university for kids, who could never have dreamed of attending one. Twenty years ago, he entered politics—a dirty business in Pakistan at the best of times.
“Now he is Prime Minister of an impoverished nation that cannot pay its bills and is dependent on handouts from rich neighbours like China and the Arab Gulf states… Driven by fierce ambition, he can be cold and calculating. But he still generates the broadest hope among young and old that he can turn Pakistan around, and help make South Asia an ocean of peace rather than a state of permanent conflict.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who received global acclaim for her handling of the aftermath of a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, also made it to the annual list.
“Ardern’s leadership since the attack has been an inspiration to us all,” Khan wrote. “We will never forget that when terror sent ripples of fear through communities around the world, New Zealand’s Prime Minister proudly stood up for hope, unity and inclusiveness in the face of fear, division and hatred.”
NNN-APP
