Ihsan Khan

Ihsan Khan (born 1970) is the former Nazim of District Batagram, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He is a citizen of both the United States and Pakistan.

Personal life

He comes from the village of Ajmera[1] in the extremely impoverished district of Batagram, Pakistan. Ihsan Khan left Batagram for US in 1989, when he was 19.[2] He earned a political science degree from the Northern Illinois University, where he met his first wife, a Christian. They had one child, but the marriage didn't last long.[3] Khan then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a security guard and cab driver for about 20 years.[4] He often returned to Pakistan for months. On one trip, he remarried and later fathered two more children, who remained in Batagram.

In November 2001, he became a multimillionaire after winning a $55.2 million Powerball jackpot in the D.C. Lottery. Khan chose a lump-sum award of $32,499,939.24, which after taxes worked out to about $18 million.[3] He bought himself a Mercedes-Benz 600, and two million-dollar mansions in Virginia and Islamabad.[4] His political career begins from this point.

He returned to his hometown district, Batagram, and stood for the election for the post of district's Nazim. He spent his own money campaigning and won the elections, defeating an incumbent whose family had been involved in local politics for 45 years. It is widely said that he bought all his votes with money. Due to this, the local political families were very devastated. Just two days after he was elected the Nazim, the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake happened.

During his tenure as the Nazim, Khan tried to rebuild the entire district of Batagram, where 4,500 people died in the quake. He said that he had spent about $300,000 of his own money on drugs and medical supplies for survivors and tin roofs for shelters.[4] He also paid to send some local young people to college. He did not draw a government salary.[3]

Disgusted with corruption, few days after becoming the Nazim, he dismissed the town's police chief and fired another official.[3]

In 2007 he resigned from his seat of Nazim in order to participate in the general elections 2008. He stood as an independent candidate for Batagram's single seat of National Assembly but he lost from Muhammad Nawaz Khan of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) by 17,161 votes. He received 5,155 votes while the winning candidate received 22,613 votes.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Names & Addresses of District & Tehsil Nazims of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province as of 2005 local elections".
  2. ↑ "Pak cabbie wins $ 32 m lottery". Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Ihsan Khan - A Dollar And a desi Dream". Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  4. 1 2 3 Miranda Kennedy. "Lottery winner takes fortune home to Pakistan". Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  5. ↑ "General Elections 2008 National Assembly Results for District Batagram NA-22".
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