Exclusive: British MPs back Imran Khan for Oxford chancellor

Conservative peer Lord Daniel Hannan and independent MPs Shockat Adam and Adnan Hussain have separately  endorsed Imran Khan, formerly Pakistan’s prime minister and the country’s most famous man, to be chancellor of the UK’s elite Oxford University. 

The immensely prestigious role has been held by figures such as Oliver Cromwell and former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Khan is competing for election against several other public figures.

The two frontrunners are stalwarts of British politics: one is Peter Mandelson, who was a key adviser to Tony Blair, a former prime minister who Khan once blamed for “the deaths of thousands of Iraqis”.

The other is William Hague, who was foreign secretary under Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.

The candidates will be elected in late October by a convocation of Oxford members and graduates of the university.

Like his rivals, Imran Khan is a former Oxford student. But unlike them, he is contesting the election from a prison cell.

Khan is serving a 10-year sentence in Pakistan after being convicted of leaking state secrets. The UN has called for his release, and a recent UN report concluded that his detention is arbitrary and in contravention of international law.

'He would make a superb chancellor for the world’s foremost university'

– Lord Daniel Hannan

Daniel Hannan is a Conservative peer, writer, former member of the European Parliament and founding president of the Initiative for Free Trade. He is also an Oxford graduate - which makes him eligible to vote in the election.

Speaking to MEE this week, Hannan threw his support behind Khan, describing him as a “towering figure in the worlds of philanthropy, sport and politics”. 

“He would make a superb chancellor for the world’s foremost university,” Hannan said. 

“It says something about the state of democracy in Pakistan that he might be more able to fight an election in Britain, the country where he was educated and where he grew into the all rounder he is, than in Pakistan.”

Khan has been blocked from standing for election in Pakistan. He is widely accepted to be the country’s most popular politician.

Others have also pointed out that Khan’s imprisonment adds an extra significance to his running for the Oxford chancellorship.

Shockat Adam is the independent Member of Parliament for Leicester South, having been elected last month in a shock win that overturned a Labour majority of over 20,000. 

He told MEE that Khan’s appointment as chancellor would be no less than a “universal symbol of resistance”. 

“It would send a powerful message of hope and exemplify the notion that walls merely imprison one’s body but not one’s beliefs.”

Adnan Hussain, independent MP for Blackburn, was also elected last month in a shock win that ended decades of Labour representation. He told MEE that the chancellorship is "one of the most esteemed roles in public life" and described Khan's life's journey since leaving Oxford as "exemplary".

"Imran Khan's hard work and dedication to everything he does in life is an inspiration for the youth desperately in need of role models, especially Pakistani youth, both here and in Pakistan.

"By giving him the role, I believe Oxford University will be recognising and exemplifying all his accomplishments. As someone with Pakistani heritage myself, for a British institution, the most prestigious in the world, to choose Imran Khan for the role would be a badge of honour and pride for us all."

'He’s a global icon'

Khan has a long-standing connection to Oxford. After he was turned down by Cambridge University, in 1972 Khan went to Oxford to study philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1975. During his time there he was captain of the university’s cricket team.

Having attained worldwide cricket stardom by the 1990s, in the early 2000s Khan reinvented himself as the Pakistani politician most critical of the US-led “war on terror” - including the British involvement in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the use of killer drones in Pakistan.

'It would show how the world perceives him and how some of the best minds in the world perceive him'

– Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, former assistant to Khan

From 2005 to 2014, while active in Pakistani politics, Khan was chancellor of the University of Bradford, in northern England. And in 2018 he became prime minister of Pakistan.

MEE spoke to Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, who was Khan’s special assistant in government and is now his aide. Bukhari laid out what he sees as Khan's credentials for the role.

“He was an exceptional chancellor for Bradford University," he said. "He’s been the most popular prime minister in Pakistani history. He’s the most popular cricketer ever to come out of Oxford and he’s a global icon.

“He is someone that has proved he stands up for justice, integrity and freedom,” Bukhari added. “These are the principles he got from Oxford and they are what the university stands for.”

Bukhari told MEE that Khan would take the role of chancellor and its duties “very seriously”.

“He would love to give back to a university he’s been so closely affiliated with, not only academically but physically with cricket as well.”

Khan being elected, Bukhari believes, would be especially significant considering his current situation.

“What's happened of late has shown his grit, and his belief in self-determination and democracy and freedom. To show that Oxford alumni want him as chancellor would send a message about what he stands for."

What would it mean to the Pakistani government, which sees Khan as a threat to national security?

“To the Pakistani government it would send a message that although the country has gone so far back it's put its most popular leader behind bars, from the UN to Oxford University everyone can see he shouldn’t be there. 

“It would show how the world perceives him and how some of the best minds in the world perceive him,” said Bukhari.