Prime Minister Imran Khan is the fifth most followed world leader on Twitter, the latest report of ranking site Twiplomacy revealed. The list took into account the social media record of the top 50 world leaders.
PM Khan, however, with 10.7 million followers on Twitter is behind his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, who has 51.8 million Twitter following. But has beaten PM Modi in terms of people’s reactions on Twitter posts. While on average Imran Khan receives 6k retweets, PM Modi is estimated to get an average 4k retweets on his Twitter posts.
The following of Imran Khan on Twitter has experienced an exponential rise in the past few months; within a couple of months, he ascended to the fifth spot in the rankings of the world’s most-followed leader from previously standing at the sixth spot in October.
PM #ImranKhan becomes 5th most influential world leader in 2019 on Twitter
Read more: https://t.co/cn1huKKK4w#GeoNews https://t.co/YPtDBxSotx
— Geo English (@geonews_english) December 11, 2019
King Salman of Saudi Arabia, is the most followed world leader on social media, edging out the US President Donald Trump, who is behind him at the second spot in the rankings. As per the estimates, King Salman gets an average 231K average tweet/retweet ratio while President Trump gets an average 21K average/retweet ration.
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, is on the third spot with an average 9K tweets/retweets ratio. In November, a video of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, of briefing her government’s achievements in two years went viral.
Read more: Bahrain to award PM Khan with highest civil award
In a short video, Ardern recapped her two years in the office, rattling off some of her party’s biggest achievements to date. The video pinged around the world successfully, citizens in other countries encouraged their premiers to take up the same challenge.
According to the breakdown by Twiplomacy, Prime Minister Imran Khan is the eighth most popular world leader on Instagram in terms of interactions.
PM Khan’s popularity accelerates globally
In September, PM Khan was the ninth most followed leader on Twitter by Spectator Index. A humongous rise in Imran Khan’s Twitter following is attributed partially to his impassioned maiden speech at the 74th UNGA session in September and his momentous initiative of opening the Kartarpur Corridor in November.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will be conferred with Bahrain’s highest civil award during his upcoming maiden trip to the gulf country.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister for overseas Pakistanis, Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, informed the media that Imran Khan will be honored with King Hamad Order of the Renaissance in a special ceremony. PM Khan will meet his counterpart Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa during the ceremony on his trip to Bahrain.
PM Imran Khan becomes 5th most influential world leader in 2019 on Twitter https://t.co/YTVIt5pFYY pic.twitter.com/dPAESgAelW
— Very Newsy (@VeryNewsy) December 12, 2019
Despite challenges, Imran Khan continued to capture the world’s attention for his various momentous measures throughout 2019. A retrospective timeline shows Imran Khan’s popularity soared exponentially in the maiden year of a premiership, overcoming obstacles to topple his nascent government.
Last month, Britain’s two leading Sikh Communities have awarded Prime Minister Imran Khan with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, during a ceremony held to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji-the founder of Sikhism.
The award recognized PM Khan’s remarkable initiative of ‘Kartarpur Corridor’, giving access to the Sikh community to visit their sacred sites in Pakistan primarily the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartapur, the second most sacred site for Sikh community.
Read more: Social media defends Imran Khan against libelous blasphemy charges
Pakistan inaugurated Kartarpur Corridor earlier this month on 9th November. Thousands of Sikh devotees from India and across the world visited Pakistan to attend the ceremony and perform religious rituals.
In October PM Khan added another feather to his hat, when Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre named Prime Minister Imran Khan the ‘Muslim Man of The Year’ in the recent list of influential Muslim personalities worldwide.
Premier Khan’s influence in the world has soared following his maiden appearance at the 74th United Nations General Assembly convention last month. In April, TIME Magazine named him amongst the ‘100 Most Influential People’ list of 2019.