LONDON: Two leading philanthropists and social activists of Pakistan Imran Khan and Abdul Sattar Edhi have been included in The Times’ most admired persons on this planet.
January 11th, 2014
An international poll conducted for The Times put cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan at number 12 and Abdul Sattar Edhi at 29. Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, was declared the most admired person on the planet, highly regarded than Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and the Pope.
The poll surveyed 13,895 people in Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the US, Australia, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, China, Egypt, Nigeria and Brazil.
Imran Khan featured at number 12, ahead of The Dalai Lama at 14, Anna Hazare, Lionel Messi, Stephen Hawking, Queen Elizabeth 11, Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Angela Merkel, and Hillary Clinton. Abdul Sattar Edhi, one of the most universally admired persons, featured ahead of Indian business tycoon Ratan Tata.
The list includes several Indian personalities. Those who feature in the top 10 category are cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, extremist Hindu politician Narendra Modi, filmstar Amitabh Bachchan, and former president Abdul Kalam.
The UK politician most admired by the British was Nigel Farage, the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader who has won an appeal amongst the right-wing electorate in rural Britain at the cost of the ruling Conservative party.
David Cameron was the person “most admired” by only two British people out of a thousand. On the contrary, The Times said that President Putin’s support among Russians helped him to secure third place in the world overall.
The Times said that no Briton featured in the world’s top ten most-admired people which showed that trust in the nation’s politicians is well and truly on the wane.
Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian cricketer known as the Little Master, is the fifth most admired person in the world owing to his huge popularity in his home country.
Stephan Shakespeare, the chief executive of YouGov, commented. “We really have a very low opinion of politicians in Britain. In America, they hate the guys [in parties] they don’t support, but they really like their own guys. Here, we really don’t like our own guys, either.”
He added: “In Germany, Angela Merkel is really liked. She’s regarded as a bit dull, but they really love that. They know she is very smart and reliable. There is a very strong sense in Germany that she has captured the moment.”
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