Adviser to imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan says he submitted application to run in October election
Imran Khan served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, until he was ousted through an army-backed vote of no confidence. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
Imran Khan aims to be Oxford University’s next chancellor
Adviser to imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan says he submitted application to run in October election
Richard Adams Education editorSun 18 Aug 2024 19.45 CESTShare
Imran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, is aiming to become Oxford’s next chancellor when the university’s graduates and staff vote later this year.
Syed Zulfi Bukhari, one of Khan’s advisers, said the former international cricket star had submitted an application to run in the election in October to replace Chris Patten, the former Conservative minister.
Khan, 71, served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022 as the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party he founded in 1996. He was ousted as prime minister through an army-backed vote of no confidence in Pakistan’s parliament and has been in jail on a string of charges for the past 12 months.
For several hundred years, elections to the largely ceremonial role of Oxford chancellor required graduates and staff to be in Oxford and wearing academic dress to vote. But Khan’s candidacy has been eased by new rules allowing nominations and voting to be carried out online.
Other than his political standing, Khan’s qualifications include eight years as chancellor of the University of Bradford, and studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford’s Keble College in the 1970s while winning honours for the university’s cricket team. He captained the Pakistan men’s cricket team when they won the World Cup in 1992.
Nominations for candidates closed on Sunday. The university said no confirmation of individual candidates would be given before a final list was published in early October.
