Prime Minister Imran Khan has been declared "Man of the Year" from the Muslim world

by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, an independent research entity

affiliated with an international Islamic non-governmental, independent institute
headquartered in Jordan.

The prime minister has been honoured in the 11th annual issue of 'The Muslim 500:
The World�s 500 Most Influential Muslims' magazine. This publication seeks to
ascertain the influence some Muslims have on nearly 1.93 billion people who share
their faith across the world.

Among the 500 influential Muslims, the magazine highlights the top 50 which are led
by the overall top two personalities entitled 'Man of the Year' and 'Woman of the
Year'. The publication selects Muslim individuals from a range of categories of
influence � 13 in total � including scholarly, political, administration of
religious affairs, business, science and technology.

Professor S. Abdallah Schleifer, Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the American

University in Cairo and chief editor of "The Muslim 500" project, while declaring
PM Imran the "Man of the year", wrote that his quest for peace with neighbouring
India entitled him for the honour.

Professor Schleifer, in his note, highlighted the premier's career as a cricketer

and paid him rich tribute. "If The Muslim 500 was in print back in 1992 and I was
then chief editor I would have nominated Imran Khan as our Muslim Man of the Year
because of his brilliant performance in cricket, which culminated in Pakistan
winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup � a sport I have always admired for its
combination of elegance and intense competitive play."

Talking about the prime minister's later campaign for Shaukat Khanum Memorial
Cancer Hospital, he wrote, "I also was touched when Khan launched a successful fund
raising campaign to establish a hospital devoted to both the care of victims of
cancer as well as research."

"This was his magnificent response to the loss of his mother to cancer in 1985 and
given Khan�s extraordinary popularity with Pakistanis both at home as well as among
the large number of Pakistani expats along with his own, no doubt, generous
personal contribution � he raised sufficient funds so that by 1994 the Shaukat
Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital opened its doors in Lahore. 75 per cent of its
patients receive free-care."

The author in his report also shed light on the premier's political struggle. He
wrote, "Imran Khan became Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2018 after 22 years devoted
to building an opposition political party committed to reform; confronting
Pakistan�s civilian political establishment over the issue of embedded corruption
and mismanagement."

However, it was Prime Minister Imran's initiatives for durable peace with
traditional arch-rival India that qualified him for the honour, according to Prof
Schleifer.

"What is particularly to his credit is that upon taking office in August 2018,
Imran Khan made it quite clear that one of his top priorities was to work for a
lasting peace with India. He wanted to normalise relations through trade, and
settling the Kashmir dispute."

"Both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. And with the three past examples of
conventional armed conflict in mind the prime minster had to be more conscious than
anyone in Pakistan that in face of India�s great depth in land, population and the
size of its armed forces, conventional warfare was a route that would lead to
disaster for Pakistan."

The author recalled that in his first television broadcast as prime minister,
"Imran Khan addressed not just the people of Pakistan and the world, but in
particular India � Imran Khan declared that Pakistan wanted a lasting peace with
India and 'if it took one step forward, we would take two steps'.

"Imran Khan didn�t wait for that one step. A meeting between the Pakistani and
Indian Foreign Ministers was arranged on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly
in September 2018 but India cancelled the meeting," he said, adding that in the
same month, the premier also wrote the first of his three letters to India�s Prime
Minister Narendra Modi calling for dialogue and lasting peace. Modi did not
respond.

"Khan writes that after Modi�s re-election in June, he congratulated him and
expressed his hope that they could work together for peace, progress and prosperity
in South Asia. One month later, Khan repeated his hopes in still another letter to
Modi. Again Modi, as in all previous cases, chose not to respond."

The author culminated, "So, this is Imran Khan�s great dilemma � how do you make a
much desired lasting peace with a nation governed by those who have neither
interest nor need to make a lasting peace with Pakistan, and against whom any form
of war would be hopeless. The answer it would seem that Khan�s efforts must now
focus on mobilising global opinion, to turn a RSS-led India a global pariah."

The prime minister shares the most prominent Muslim in the world title with
trailblazing US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who has been named as the most
prominent Muslim woman of the year by the institute.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Imran had been named among the '100 Most
Influential People' of 2019 by Time magazine.