Boxer Amir Khan says PM Imran ‘did nothing for sports’

LONDON: British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan has alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan has done “nothing for sports in Pakistan” after coming to power, adding he would himself like to become the sports minister in Pakistan to promote sports.

In an interview, the boxer praised PM Khan as a “great sports player and a great politician”, but added he has “not done much for sports”.

The boxing star said: “So you know even though he is a great person but for sports he has not done anything. Being a sportsman, he has not done anything for sports”. Amir Khan, who is a friend of PM Khan, said that “all the people in Pakistan are crying”.

In the same interview, Khan credited himself for being “the only person that does anything for sports”. The boxer said he was taking Pakistani boxers “around the world to put them in fights”. He said on several occasions he wanted to establish more boxing academies in Pakistan, but he was not getting the assistance to do so. The boxer alleged that a government minister visited his boxing academy, made some pictures and left, and nothing was done after that. “There should be at least 10-15 boxing academies in Pakistan because there are so many boxers in Pakistan but nothing’s happening so that’s why I said Imran Khan, being a sports man, he is not really backing sports”.

Amir Khan feared that sports are “probably going down even more than before because Nawaz Sharif is the one who got the Sports Council of Pakistan to give me the boxing academy, then I spent my own money around $100,000 on it to build it up but all I say is that Imran Khan is less supporting boxing”.

He expressed the desire to enter into Pakistani politics, saying he will do something for people if he became sports minister.Amir Khan often attended fundraising events with PM Khan in Manchester in the past. Khan had at one event promised to take people like Amir Khan to Pakistan.