Imran Khan backs off statement that he will make Ahmadi economist his Finance Minister

Pakistan’s cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan last night backtracked over his support for the Ahmadi economist Atif Mian after receiving serious backlash from Islamist Clerics.

Since August 15th Mr Khan has been leading a sit-in demonstration against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad.

On September 13th while addressing the protest he announced that after coming into power, he would never compromise on merit and have people like Professor Atif Mian as his finance minister rather than appointing a relative like Nawaz Sharif’s Samdhi (daughter’s father-in-law) Ishaq Dar.

Atif Mian is a 39 year old Pakistani-American, professor of economics at Princeton University. International Monetary Fund (IMF) named Mian as one of 25 young economists who are expected to be most influential in the decades to come.

In his interview to a Britain based Islamic web channel Khan clarified that he did not intentionally mention Atif Mian and implied that had he known about his faith he would not have done so.

I mentioned the name of Atif Mian because I read in a magazine that he is one of the top 25 economists of the world, I did not know that he ran a campaign against “KhatmeNabuwat  (Finality of Prophethood)” I had no clue about it.

He went on to say:

All should be equal in the eyes of the Law and thats how it was in the state of Medina (Saudi Arabia), Everybody had rights, Christians had rights, Jews had rights … everyone had rights. Those were the rights of all Humans and i say they are all equal in the eyes of the Law but to say that someone who does not believe Prophet (Muhammad SAW) to be the last Prophet is Muslim, that can not happen.

Responding to Imran Khan’s remarks against Ahmadiyya Muslim beliefs Atif Mian who up till now has kept quiet about the issue sent the following tweet to Imran Khan: