A number of Pakistani personalities have been named among the top 500 most influential Muslims across the world.
The 14th edition of The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims was released by the Jordan-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC) in partnership with Georgetown University.
Among the Pakistani leaders mentioned in the most recent issue are Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and Islamic scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil.
The forum described the Pakistani influential persons as;
Shahbaz Sharif
Following a motion of no-confidence against previous Prime Minister Imran Khan in April 2022, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was elected as Pakistan’s 23rd prime minister. Sharif, who served as the President of the Pakistan Muslim League and three times as the Chief Minister of Punjab, is the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and has had a lengthy political career (1997, 2007, and 2013).
He was detained for a few months after his arrest in 2020 on suspicion of corruption and money laundering before being released on bail in April 2021. Despite having a reputation for being an effective administrator, he still has a long way to go before his country and the world can be trusted.
Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa
The current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of the Pakistani Army is General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who was chosen by the country’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2016 ahead of two other senior generals.
In August, the then-prime minister, Imran Khan, extended his term in the position for a further three years. In the upcoming month, he is scheduled to retire.
Imran Khan
In 2018, Imran Khan was elected Pakistan’s prime minister, and the nation had high hopes for him to improve the nation’s governance, accountability, and anti-corruption efforts. Before being removed from office in April 2022 by a motion of no-confidence, he went through a difficult time.
He has insisted that foreign interference was a big factor in his removal from office and blamed a number of domestic institutions for it. Khan himself was accused of violating anti-terror laws by the Pakistani authorities in August 2022; he is now out on bail. Khan still maintains massive popular support in the country as well as with the large and powerful Pakistani diaspora. His challenges are seen as part of the inevitable results of trying to change a system rife with corruption.
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was Pakistan’s prime minister three times: from 1990 to 1993, 1997 to 1999, and 2013 to 2017. He was forced to retire on the previous occasion due to corruption allegations, and he was found guilty in 2018.
He was given a 10-year sentence and imprisoned for two months before having his sentence postponed by the Pakistan High Court (the same happened to, Maryam). After being found guilty of new allegations of corruption, Sharif was given a 7-year prison term and a $25 million fine by an accountability court. In November 2019, he was given permission to travel to London for medical care, but he hasn’t yet made it back to Pakistan. Considering that his brother is now the prime minister, many people anticipate that this will occur.
Maulana Tariq Jameel
A well-known Deobandi scholar and one of Pakistan’s most well-liked preachers is Maulana Tariq Jameel. His lectures center on the topics of self-purification, refraining from violence, adhering to Allah’s directives, and following the example of the Prophet Muhammad g. He is a member of the Tablighi Jamaat group. Background: Maulana Tariq was enrolled at the King Edward Medical College in Lahore after completing his pre-medical studies. His attention shifted to Islamic education at that point, under the influence of the Tablighi Jamaat.
His Islamic training is from Jamia Arabia, where he studied Qur’an, Hadith, Sufism, Logic, and Islamic Jurisprudence. Maulana Tariq’s background in the sciences allows him to explain Islamic matters in a way that appeals to modern urban Muslims. Additionally, his simple lifestyle and eloquence in Urdu, as well as his fluency in Arabic, catapulted his fame across the Muslim world.
