Jailed Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan applies to be Oxford chancellor

Chris Patten, the current chancellor of Oxford University, announced in February that he would be stepping down.

Jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has applied to become the next chancellor of Britain’s prestigious University of Oxford, his party says.

The Oxford alumnus “formally submitted” the request via Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, the London-based spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party said on the social media platform X.

“Despite being unlawfully incarcerated for over a year, Khan remains committed to his principles and the causes he champions,” the PTI post said on Sunday.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, Bukhari said: “Imran Khan had given instructions that he would like to submit his application and now the application scrutiny will take place.”

“It’s a ceremonial post but one with utmost prestige and importance, and Imran Khan, being one of the larger or more popular names coming out of Oxford, it would be brilliant to see him as chancellor,” he said.

“If he does become the chancellor, he would be the first of Asian descent. It wouldn’t be something only for Pakistan, but it would be a great achievement for all of Asia and the rest of the world,” Bukhari added.

Pakistan’s national hero and Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, founder and chairman of Pakistan’s biggest political party PTI, a cricketing legend, a philanthropist and an alumnus of Oxford University, is running for the position of Chancellor of Oxford University, all while… pic.twitter.com/M4BPghvxGG

— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 18, 2024

Khan’s party’s announcement comes after Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, announced in February that he would be stepping down as Oxford chancellor.

The list of candidates for the 10-year term will not be made public until October, according to the university’s website, and voting is to take place at the end of that month.

Khan graduated from the university in 1975 after studying philosophy, politics and economics.

He then reportedly led a playboy lifestyle during his career as one of Pakistan’s greatest cricket players, regularly gracing the pages of Britain’s gossip magazines.

Married three times, including to British socialite and filmmaker Jemima Goldsmith, he also served as the chancellor of the University of Bradford from 2005 until 2014.

He later turned to philanthropy and politics, serving  as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan was ousted from his post in 2022 when he lost a vote of confidence and then launched a comeback campaign in which he criticised Pakistan’s powerful military, whose leading generals had once backed him, and drew massive crowds onto the nation’s streets.

But he was imprisoned in August last year and just marked one year in jail on various charges from corruption to inciting violence.

Khan has said these charges are politically motivated and designed to keep him from power.