Addressing an event in Peshawar, he said, “When we were building the first Shaukat Khanum, we needed Rs170 million. There was a lot of pressure, hence I had decided to quit cricket to focus solely on the hospital. But the board of directors of Shaukat Khanam Hospital convinced me that if I quit cricket, Ill never be able to collect money for the hospital.”
Recalling the 1992 World Cup victory, he said that they won the World Cup because of the motivation to build the cancer hospital.
“In the speech, after we won the Cup, my mind was entirely focused on the hospital and I forgot to thank the team members who had put so much effort in the game,” he reminisced.
Imran opened the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore in 1994 ,in the memory of her mother, who was a cancer patient.