Pakistan cricket hero Imran Khan embarked upon a political career which may help him grab the top political job of prime minister or end his ambitions in dust, as it happens in many a Third World country where rival politicians are ruthless and unforgiving. Imran launched his ‘Tehreek-e-Insaf’ or Movement for Justice (MJ) in Lahore where he has the largest number of his cricket fans. It is also in Lahore that he has built a multi-million dollar cancer hospital. The Justice Movement, Imran told a press conference, aims to end “all kinds of exploitation and ensure a society based on honesty, merit and integrity. I believe our movement can bring about a change in the country by demanding justice, honesty, decency and self-respect. We feel our people’s vast potential needs to be released from the yoke of corruption and injustice.” It can eventually turn into a political party and fight the next elections to reform the society.
Other important events:
1809 Britain concludes treaty of friendship with Sikhs at Amritsar in India.
1859 Construction of the Suez Canal begins in Egypt.
1881 French troops occupy Algeria and Tunisia.
1898 United States declares war on Spain.
1901 New York becomes the first US state to require automobile licence plates.
1920 Poland launches offensive against Soviets in the Ukraine.
1942 A coal mine disaster in Benxi, Japanese occupied China, kills 1,549 workers.
1950 Chuck Cooper becomes 1st black to play in NBA.
1957 US Sixth Fleet sails for eastern Mediterranean as King Hussein proclaims martial law in Jordan and seals frontiers after a Palestinian coup attempt.
1974 Portugal’s bloodless “Revolution of the Carnations” ends 48 years of rightist dictatorship.
1982 Egypt regains Sinai after 15 years from Israel.
1989 Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita resigns over the country’s biggest political scandal in decades.
1990 Violeta Barrio de Chamorro is inaugurated President of Nicaragua.
1992 Italian President Francesco Cossiga resignes.
1993 Russian President Boris Yeltsin wins vote of confidence in Russia’s referendum.
1994 Tsutomu Hata is elected Prime Minister of Japan.
1998 Millions of Nigerians boycott legislative elections billed by the ruling junta as a first step toward democracy.
2001 Former Philippines President Joseph Estrada is arrested in Manila for the offence of plunder case.
2005 A crowded Japanese commuter train derails and slams into an apartment building, killing at least 57 people.
2006 A suicide bomber blows herself up in front of a car carrying Sri Lanka’s top ranking general, killing eight people and wounding the officer.
2010 Two tourists are killed in hot air balloon crash landing in Al Ain.
2011 More than 100 prisoners escape from a south Afghanistan prison through a 1,000-foot long tunnel dug by Taliban insurgents.
2012 Pakistan successfully launches an intermediate range nuclear capable ballistic missile.
2013 Godolphin handler Mahmoud Al Zarouni is banned for eight years by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), London.
2015 A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes Nepal, killing more than 8,000 people.
