| Early life and education
Khan was born to Shaukat Khanum and Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, in Lahore. He grew up as the only son in a family with four sisters. Settled in the province of Punjab, Khan's family descended from the Niazi Shermankhel tribe of Mianwali. Khan is a distant cousin of the Pashtun ethnic group, of which he wrote in a book entitled Warrior Race: Journey Through the Land of the Tribal Pathans.[4] His maternal lineage consists of numerous professional cricketers, including Javed Burki and Majid Khan, both of whom captained Pakistan's national team.[4]
Khan started his education at Aitchison College and the Cathedral School in Lahore. After middle school, he left Pakistan to study at the Royal Grammar School in Worcester, United Kingdom, where he excelled at cricket. He then went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics as an undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford in 1972, graduating with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics. |