Introduction
The Guardian Publishes a much controversial column on Imran Khan's Chancellor candidateship of Oxford.
Key words: Imran Khan, Oxford, Oxford Chancellor, Taliban Friendly, The Guardian, Pakistan, News, PTI, Oxford University,
Purpose
We don't know weather columnist Catheriene Bennet wrote this under political maligning of former cricketer and Prime Minister of Pakistan or it depicts a true story, but under the circumstances in which Imran Khan is kept in Jail by current government which promotes such columns on Pakistani media to prove that Imran Khan not eligible for the said post.
A Politically Motivated Column
The Guardian reports , "News that Jemima Khan’s ex-husband, Imran Khan, has applied to be chancellor of Oxford University will have caused consternation in some quarters. Imagine if literally the only reason you’d decided not to apply to be elected Oxford’s chancellor was because, like Khan, you once refused to tolerate the presence of Salman Rushdie, and maybe also called him “a blasphemer”, as Khan did.
Catheriene Bennet further alleges Imran Khan by writing, "You called Osama bin Laden a “martyr”. And before that, refused to call him a terrorist.
Or maybe, like Khan, you’ve congratulated the Taliban – never considering the possible impact on a UK academic career – for “breaking the shackles of slavery”.
And still share Khan’s stated belief on rape, that women should remove “temptation”, because “not everyone has willpower”.
Opinions like these, though widely shared, have probably deprived Oxford’s contest of countless male applicants.
She further writes , "Khan is months into his latest, 14-year sentence (seemingly imposed, his allies say, for political reasons) and the Oxford job involves, along with administrative duties, presiding “over several key ceremonies”. Not onerous, but involving ceremonial robes, performance and speeches"
She wrote, "In or out of prison, Khan is the same politician who told Pakistan’s Chinese benefactors, in 2021, how much he admired the achievements, including its horrifying treatment of Uyghurs, of the Chinese Communist party.
The same body is known, of course, to be active in suppressing free speech in UK universities. “What the CPC has done is that it has brought this alternative model,” Khan enthused.
“And they have actually beaten all western democracies in the way they have brought up merit in their society.”
Hopes that this must count against Khan’s chancellorship should take into account intense male loyalties that seem immune, whether they’re explained by cricketing sentiment or some ineradicable longing for warrior outfits, to the accumulated evidence of Khan’s opportunism, religious intolerance and excuses for the Taliban.
A candidacy that could be designed to insult Oxford’s female students, past and present, strikes, for example, the journalist Peter Oborne as a chance “to send a powerful message to the world about UK values”.
