Imran Khan: Running for Oxford University Chancellorship From a Prison Cell

BJ Sadiq reports on the former Prime Minister of Pakistan's continuing fight for freedom, and the growing unrest that may make his country ungovernable.

Activists protest for release of PTI Founder Imran Khan, at Namak Mandi in Peshawar on Friday, 26 July, 2024. Credit: Pakistan Press International (PPI)/Alamy

When pictures of Imran Khan’s jail room went viral in June this year; there was outrage. Many supporters of the PTI (Khan’s political party) claimed the pictures, showing an air cooler, an exercise machine, painted walls, a scrubbed floor, a compact study table littered with books, and a shelf ranged with victuals, were doctored by the Sharifs’ party, the PML-N, presently in power. Khan’s party members on the contrary believe he is being denied all the facilities that someone of his public profile deserves. Others claim the pictures could be aesthetically exaggerated, but it is true that Khan, battling a monsoon of politically-motivated legal cases, has reportedly been busy leafing through Tolstoy novels, and according to his legal team maintains an agile health.

Khan’s indefatigable spirit keeps him going. His moment in the sun never wanes. Last week, his team announced that he will run for Chancellor of Oxford University from his cell. The news spread like fire in a prairie. The seat of the Chancellor of Oxford University is vacant in the wake of Lord Pattern’s resignation, who is the former Governor of Hong Kong and chairman of the Tory Party.  The distinguished chancellorship goes to graduates of the university, and invariably to politicians. Khan’s chances of winning the coveted seat are grim, because other contenders for the position include former British Prime Ministers Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. Khan’s Oxford connection is well known, having graduated with a PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) degree in 1975, during which time he was also the captain of the Oxford Blues cricket team. Soon after Oxford, he became an intensely popular cricketer, one of the finest the game has produced.

A Rough Two Years

Khan has had a rough two years. Since his removal from power, in April 2022, he has been battling more than 150 court cases, including charges of sedition, leaking of state secrets, an illegal marriage, to name but a few.  Dissent from his party members and non-partisan journalists has been brutally suppressed by the country’s omnipotent military establishment. Many pro-democracy youth activists have gone mysteriously missing, and a great number of them are languishing in dingy jails. Young female members of the party have also complained of being harassed. Shandana Gulzar, a prominent member of Khan’s party, and the first female representative of the country’s parliament from the frontier province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, refuses to pull her punches: ‘When I was picked up by unknown men, all wearing masks, last August, I was told that I will be forgiven if I either join Sharif’s party or Zardari’s PPP.’ Shandana, an engaging orator, and a Cambridge University alumnus, has also been fighting off her own court cases since last year, and continues to denounce the military establishment for meddling in state affairs.