(CTN News) – Imran Khan’s staff confirmed to The Telegraph that he will run for chancellor of Oxford University from his prison cell in Pakistan.
Despite serving a 10-year prison sentence, the former Pakistani prime minister and cricketer will vote online.
Lord Patten, former governor of Hong Kong and Tory Party chairman, has resigned as chancellor of Oxford University after 21 years in the position.
For the first time, the chancellor’s election will be held online, as opposed to the conventional practice, which required graduates to appear in full academic attire. The prestigious chancellorship goes to university graduates, who are usually politicians.
Imran Khan is in jail for allegedly inciting riots and violence against Pakistan’s military on May 9, 2018. He’s disputed the charges.
Imran Khan studied Economics and Politics at Keble College, Oxford, in 1972. He made his Test debut for Pakistan in 1971 and captained Oxford University’s cricket team. Imran Khan was appointed as Bradford University’s chancellor in 2005. He remained in the position until 2014.
“Imran Khan will run for chancellor of Oxford University because there is public demand for him to do so,” Syed Zulfi Bukhari, Khan’s international media advisor, told The Telegraph.
“We will announce it publicly once we get a go-ahead from Khan and start the signature campaign for it,” Mr. Bukhari explained.
Imran Khan’s victory is unlikely. Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Boris Johnson are among the candidates to become the university’s chancellor.
Pakistani authorities have filed multiple cases against Khan after his removal from power in 2022 via an army-backed vote of no-confidence in parliament. Since his arrest in May 2023, Khan has been involved in more than 150 judicial cases, including claims of inciting violence.
On July 13, a Pakistani court overturned Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s conviction and seven-year imprisonment in a case involving the couple’s legal marriage in 2018. However, officials quickly filed new charges against him to block his release from prison.
During a meeting in the House of Lords Committee Room on Tuesday, more than two dozen members of Parliament called for Khan’s immediate release, citing the breakdown of democratic principles in Pakistan and the former prime minister’s “illegal incarceration”.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, a Conservative Peer, and Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, convened the hearing jointly.
According to the PTI, Azhar Mashwani, a Pakistani dissident and Imran Khan’s close aide living in the United Kingdom, was threatened that if he attended the event, his parents would be taken. Mashwani was set to testify in the House of Lords on Tuesday.
Since Imran Khan’s August 2023 detention, which the UN has described as having no legal basis, hundreds of his supporters have been imprisoned, and the government has stated that it intends to ban his party, the PTI.
Source: The Telegraph
