Imran Khan will run for chancellor of Oxford University from his prison cell in Pakistan, his team has told The Telegraph.
The former Pakistani prime minister and cricket star will enter an online ballot, despite serving a 10-year jail sentence.
The seat of chancellor of Oxford University is vacant following the resignation of 80-year-old Lord Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong and Tory Party chairman, who held the post for 21 years.
For the first time, the elections for the chancellor will be held online compared to the traditional process in which the graduates were required to attend the process in full academic dress. The prestigious chancellorship goes to graduates of the university, usually politicians.
Khan is currently in jail over allegations of stoking protests and violence against the all-powerful Pakistan military on May 9 last year. He has denied the charges.
Khan studied Economics and Politics at Keble College, Oxford in 1972. He made a Test debut for Pakistan in 1971 and also captained the cricket team of Oxford University. In 2005, Imran Khan became the chancellor of Bradford University. He served in the post till 2014.
“Imran Khan will contest for the chancellor of Oxford University as there is a public demand that he should contest,” Khan’s advisor on international media Syed Zulfi Bukhari 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 said.
Victory for Khan appears unlikely. Former prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson are also among the candidates to become the university’s chancellor
The Pakistani authorities have filed numerous cases against Khan since 2022 when he was removed from power through an army-backed vote of no-confidence in the parliament. Khan has been involved in over 150 legal cases, including charges of inciting violence, since his initial arrest in May 2023.
On July 13, a Pakistani court overturned the conviction and seven-year sentences of Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in a case relating to the legality of the couple’s 2018 marriage. However, officials swiftly filed new cases against him to prevent his release from prison.
On Tuesday, more than two dozen members of Parliament called for Khan’s immediate release during a hearing in the House of Lords Committee Room, discussing the erosion of democratic norms in Pakistan and the “illegal incarceration” of the former prime minister.
The hearing was jointly convened by Labour MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah, and Conservative Peer, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere.
The PTI said that a Pakistani dissident, Azhar Mashwani, and a close aide of Khan residing in the UK, was warned that his parents would be abducted if he attended the event. Mashwani was scheduled to speak at the House of Lords on Tuesday.
Since Khan’s imprisonment in August 2023, which the UN has described as having no legal basis, hundreds of his supporters have been arrested, and the government has indicated its intention to ban his party PTI.