Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan will run for chancellor of Oxford University from his prison cell in Pakistan, according to British newspaper The Telegraph.
Despite serving a 10-year prison sentence, Khan will cast an online vote. The position of chancellor became vacant when the 80-year-old Lord Patten, a former governor of Hong Kong and chairman of the Tory Party, resigned after 21 years in office.
This year, the chancellor’s election will be conducted online for the first time, replacing the traditional system requiring graduates to appear in full academic regalia. Typically, politicians are awarded the esteemed chancellorship, which is conferred to university graduates.
Khan is currently incarcerated over allegations of inciting protests and violence against the Pakistan military on May 9 last year, charges he denies.
In 1972, Khan studied Economics and Politics at Keble College, Oxford. He made his Test debut for Pakistan in 1971 and captained the Oxford University cricket team. Khan also served as the chancellor of Bradford University from 2005 to 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,” Bukhari added.
