ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been effectively ruled out from running for Oxford University’s chancellor after the prestigious institution released a list of 38 candidates on Wednesday who will contest the election for the post, with his name not making the cut. 

Khan, who served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018-2022, applied to be Oxford University’s chancellor in August this year. The former premier has been in jail since August 2023 on various charges from corruption to inciting violence that he says are politically motivated and designed to keep him from power.

Khan is a graduate of Oxford’s Keble College where he studied politics, philosophy, and economics in the 1970s while winning honors for the university’s cricket team and leading Pakistan to cricket World Cup glory in 1992. His connection to Oxford and a CV that includes an eight-year tenure as chancellor of the University of Bradford made him a prominent candidate for the post. 

“The first round of voting will take place during Week 3 of Michaelmas Term (week commencing 28 October),” Oxford University said on its website. “The top 5 candidates will go on to a second round, to take place during the Week 6 of Michaelmas Term (week commencing 18 November).”

The chancellor is elected by the members of convocation, which includes all alumni of the university who have been admitted to a degree. To be eligible to run for the position, a candidate must be nominated by at least two members of convocation.

The election process is generally open to distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions to public life, academia or other fields.

The position of chancellor of Oxford has existed since 1224. A largely ceremonial role, past officeholders include figures such as Oliver Cromwell, the Duke of Wellington, and former prime minister Harold Macmillan. 

Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, Khan’s close aide and a member of his PTI party, described Oxford’s decision to exclude the former premier’s name from the candidates’ list as “extremely unfortunate.”

“My lawyers have written to the university asking for their reasons,” Bukhari wrote on social media platform X. “We had taken several lawyers and barristers’ opinions prior to his application.”

He wished all candidates luck on Khan’s behalf, saying it was a “loss” for the university to present itself as a “global trendsetting institution.”