Pakistan's jailed ex-Premier Khan out of race for Oxford University chancellorship

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's incarcerated ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan is out of the race for the office of the chancellor of the Britain's Oxford University, according to a list of candidates issued by the university on Wednesday.

The university released the names of 38 candidates in the run, but Khan is not among them.

The list includes several high-profile figures, including former Conservative party leader and Foreign Secretary William Hague, Labour party's former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and former Attorney General Dominic Grieve.

The new chancellor will be announced next month following two rounds of voting.

Khan had filed nomination papers to contest for the chancellorship in August.

Previously, the former cricket star served as the chancellor of the University of Bradford from 2005 to 2014.

Khan, an alumnus of Oxford University, is currently languishing in a jail in the northeastern garrison city of Rawalpindi, seeking bail in multiple cases, which range from corruption to inciting violence.

The cricketer-turned-politician, who, according to his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, has been incommunicado with his family and party leaders for over a week, denies the allegations.

The government reportedly banned meetings with Khan until Oct. 17 to avoid a possible protest call from him on the occasion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's heads of the state summit that ended in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Khan, 72, was ousted through a no-trust vote in April 2022, over a year before the completion of his five-year stint.