Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to tackle child abuse incidents effectively. Image Credit: AFP/file

Dubai: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been declared as Muslim Man of the Year 2020 by Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.

Imran won the title in the recent list of the most persuasive Muslims in the world issued by the Centre.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran has also become the sixth most popular world leader on Twitter, boasting 10.5 million followers on the social media platform.

The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC) is an autonomous research entity with the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan.

Imran’s name has been included in The Muslim 500 – the Most Influential Muslims In the World published by the RISSC.

“If ‘The Muslim 500’ was in print back in 1992 and I was the Chief Editor then, I would have nominated Imran Khan as our Muslim Man of the Year because of his brilliant performance in cricket when he won the 1992 Cricket World Cup for Pakistan,” said Professor S. Abdallah Schleifer, a professor emeritus of journalism at the American University in Cairo, who chose both the winners for the titles.

But what is particularly to Imran’s credit is that upon taking office as Prime Minister of Pakistan in August 2018, he made it quite clear that one of his top priorities was to work for a lasting peace with India.

“Imran wanted to normalise relations through trade, and settling the Kashmir dispute, “the foremost impediment” in the Prime Minister’s own words “to the normalisation of relations between us,” noted Prof S Abdallah Schleifer

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran’s popularity increased manifold after what his supporters said his impressive speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year.

It was perhaps due to his hard-hitting speeches which he delivered on different occasions during his visit to the United States, Imran has become one of the most-searched world leaders attending the UN General Assembly session last month.

Professor Schleifer said Imran’s role in cricket was not the only criteria for him being bestowed with the title.

He said he was also impressed with Imran for launching a successful fund-raising campaign to establish a hospital devoted to both the care of cancer patients and its research.

He said that it was also Imran’s desire for peace with neighbouring India which earned him the title.