London (The Thursday Times) — The British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ has written that Imran Khan is neither a victim of political persecution nor a spokesman for the oppressed. Because of the sentences handed down to him by the courts, he could be disqualified from taking up the post of Chancellor of Oxford University. Remarkably, despite Imran Khan's tarnished record, some prominent figures in Britain are still supporting him.
According to The Telegraph, Imran Khan, 72, wants to stand as a candidate for the chancellorship of Oxford University, but he is currently imprisoned in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, and, because of his vanity, is not fit to enter the race for the chancellorship. Because of the sentences handed down to him, he could be disqualified from taking up the post of Chancellor of Oxford University.
The British newspaper wrote that some people who knew Imran Khan in the 1980s as a sensation-seeking fool may have overlooked his transformation into a religious extremist over the past two decades. The former cricketer presented himself in Pakistan's political arena as a quasi-Islamist.
According to The Telegraph, Imran Khan, claiming that he would build a state like Medina, became Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2018 through what was allegedly a rigged election in which, according to the Human Rights Commission, the Pakistan army intervened brazenly, openly and aggressively.
According to The Telegraph, a great burden rests on Oxford University graduates and on the staff who make up Oxford's electoral college: will they vote for, as Chancellor of a university with a thousand years of historic traditions, a man who described the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan as ‘a blessing from Allah’? The same Taliban who have banned women from education in Afghanistan?
The London-based international newspaper asked whether they were prepared to choose, to inspire young people, a figure who in 2012 stood in the very hospital where emergency treatment was given to save Malala Yousafzai's life and justified the Taliban's 'holy war'.
According to the British newspaper, last October the Election Commission of Pakistan convicted Imran Khan of stealing valuable gifts that Pakistan had received from foreign dignitaries (Toshakhana), and he was disqualified from membership of Pakistan's parliament and also barred from holding any public office for five years.
Citing the British newspaper the Financial Times, The Telegraph wrote that an investigative report published by the Financial Times had revealed that a Pakistani fraudster sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Imran Khan's party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) through a charity, while that fraudster faces a possible prison sentence of 291 years in the United States for financial fraud.
The Telegraph, a newspaper of worldwide renown, wrote that because of the sentence handed to Imran Khan he could be disqualified from taking up the post of Chancellor of Oxford University. It is surprising that, despite Imran Khan's tarnished record, some prominent figures in Britain still support him.
The British newspaper also wrote that Imran Khan's candidacy for the chancellorship of Oxford University is an expression of the contempt for Oxford, and for the academic, political and cultural world, that led to the founding of Oxford University. For Imran Khan, the use of words such as diversity and inclusion is merely a deception, and there is a long and sorry history of such deceit, in which people invoke high principles to pursue their own interests.
The renowned writer V S Naipaul wrote about this very matter two generations ago: how religious extremists such as Imran Khan manage to deceive ordinary people and exploit their rights. To that end, he wrote, they describe the gap between poor and rich states in the right words, while also speaking of racism and the brotherhood of mankind.
The British newspaper The Telegraph has written that Imran Khan is neither a victim of political persecution nor a spokesman for the oppressed. Electing him chancellor of Oxford University would not send the world a powerful message about British values, it wrote, but would prove that Britain has no values at all.
