Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. File | Photograph credit score: Reuters
Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has utilized to develop into the following chancellor of Britain’s prestigious Oxford College, his occasion mentioned.
Khan, prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has simply accomplished a yr in jail on a spread of prices, from corruption to inciting violence, that he says are politically motivated and designed to take away him from energy.
“Imran Khan had given directions that he want to submit his software and now the scrutiny of the applying will likely be carried out,” mentioned Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a London-based spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) occasion. AFP.
“It is a ceremonial submit however one with the utmost status and significance, and Imran Khan, being one of many greatest and hottest names to return out of Oxford, it might be sensible to see him as chancellor,” he mentioned.
Conservative peer Chris Patten, the final British governor of Hong Kong, introduced in February that he would resign as chancellor of Oxford.
The record of candidates for the 10-year time period is not going to be made public till October, in keeping with the college’s web site, with voting happening on the finish of the month.
Khan graduated from Oxford in 1975 after finding out philosophy, politics and economics.
He led a playboy life throughout his profession as one among Pakistan’s prime cricketers, repeatedly showing within the pages of Britain’s gossip magazines.
He was married thrice, together with to British socialite and filmmaker Jemima Goldsmith, and later devoted himself to philanthropy and politics.
Whereas prime minister, she confronted backlash from girls’s rights teams for linking Pakistan’s excessive charges of sexual violence to the garments girls put on.
Khan was ousted in 2022 after which launched a comeback marketing campaign during which he criticized Pakistan’s highly effective army, whose prime generals had as soon as backed him, and drew huge crowds to the nation’s streets.
“If he turns into overseas minister, he would be the first of Asian descent. It is not going to be one thing distinctive to Pakistan, however an awesome achievement for the entire of Asia and the remainder of the world,” Bukhari mentioned.
Different outstanding candidates and Oxford alumni embody former International Secretary William Hague and former EU Commerce Commissioner Peter Mandelson, in keeping with British media studies.
