The advisor of the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan says that he has submitted an application to participate in the elections to be held in October.
Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan is set 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 contest the October election to replace former Conservative minister Chris Patton.
Khan, 71, served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022 as the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, which he founded in 1996. He was removed as Prime Minister by a military-backed no-confidence vote. in the Parliament of Pakistan and has been in jail for the past 12 months on various charges.
For several hundred years, elections for the largely ceremonial role of Chancellor of Oxford required graduates and staff to be in Oxford and dressed in academic dress to vote. But Khan’s candidacy has been made easier by new rules that allow online nominations and voting.
In addition to his political status, Khan’s qualifications include eight years as Chancellor of Bradford University, and studying politics, philosophy and economics at Keble College, Oxford in the 1970s while playing for the university’s cricket team. To be honored. He was the captain of the Pakistan men’s cricket team when they won the World Cup in 1992.
The process of nominations of candidates was closed on Sunday. The university said no confirmation of individual candidates will be made before the final list is published in early October.
Although open election campaigns are rare, potential candidates include former Lord Advocate of Scotland and principal of St Hugh’s College Elish Angiolini and Margaret Casely Heyford, former chair of Shakespeare’s Globe, who would each become Oxford’s first female chancellor.
Supporters of former Labor Minister Peter Mandelson and former Conservative leader William Hague say they are interested in the role.
Voting will be online from October 28. Only Oxford graduates and members of the university community, including academic staff, can vote.
Although a non-executive role, the chancellor chairs the vice-chancellor’s appointment committee and is involved in fundraising, advocacy, and oversight.
University records show Peyton is the 159th person to have served as Chancellor of Oxford since 1224. Powerful politicians have filled the post before, including Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, during the reign of Elizabeth I, and Oliver Cromwell as a Lord during her reign.