Claim: The University of Oxford rejected Imran Khan’s application of candidacy in the Chancellor election following a request by the Government of Pakistan, citing his stance “against Israel and in favor of Palestine”, him being “a supporter of Taliban”, and his wish to implement Shariah law in the country as its reasons.
Fact: Oxford University did not post such a statement on its X account. A spokesperson confirmed the same to Soch Fact Check.
On 21 October 2024, Facebook user ‘Aftab Alikhan’ shared (archive) a screenshot of an X (formerly Twitter) post apparently from the University of Oxford, detailing the reasons behind its disqualification of former prime minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, from the university’s 2024 Chancellor election.
The screenshot includes text in English, as well as its translation in Urdu. The first one reads as follows:
“Accepting the request of the Government of Pakistan, we disqualify Imran Khan from the race for the chancellor election. That Imran Khan is against Israel and in favor of Palestine It has also been said that Imran Khan is a supporter of Taliban and wants Islamic Sharia law in Pakistan”.
The text in Urdu reads as follows:
“پاکستانی حکومت کی درخواست کو قبول کرتے ہوئے ہم عمران خان کو چانسلر کے انتخابات کی دوڑ سے خارج کرتے ہیں درخواست میں جو الزامات لگائے گئے ہیں وہ سنگین قسم کے ہیں جس میں کہا گیا ہے کہ عمران خان اسرائیل کے خلاف ہے اور فلسطین کے حق میں ہے یہ بھی کہا گیا ہے کہ عمران خان طالبان کے حامی ہے اور پاکستان میں اسلامی شریعت چاہتے ہیں”
The screenshot also states that the post was uploaded on “05:30 AM 17 Oct 24” via “Twitter for Android” and has “1.2K Retweets” and “4.5M Likes”.
‘Aftab Alikhan’ wrote the following caption alongside the visual:
“کعبے کس منہ سے جاؤ گے غالب
شرم تم کو مگر نہیں آتی
*عمران خان اسراٸیل کا حامی ہے یا مخالف؟ اور أن کا یہاں پاکستان میں ایجنڈ کون ہے اب سب کو پتہ لگ جانا چاہے آکسفورڈ کی دوڑ سے خان کو باہر کیوں کیا گیا ۔۔*
[With what face will you go to the Kaaba, Ghalib,
But you don’t feel ashamed.
*Is Imran Khan a supporter or opponent of Israel? And who is his agent here in Pakistan? Now, everyone should know why Khan was eliminated from the Oxford race.*]”
The first two lines of the aforementioned caption are a verse from “Koi Umeed Bar Nahi Aati,” a ghazal — a specific type of poetry or ode — by Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, an Urdu poet better known as Mirza Ghalib.
2024 Oxford University Chancellor election
Elections for Oxford University’s next chancellor were scheduled after Lord Christopher Patten, in February, earlier this year, announced (archive) his retirement “at the end of the 2023-24 academic year”.
“The Chancellor is the titular head of the University and presides over several key ceremonies. In addition to these formal duties, the Chancellor undertakes advocacy, advisory and fundraising work, acting as an ambassador for the University at a range of local, national and international events,” according to the university, which added that the successful candidate will serve a term of 10 years.
Voting for the election was held online to allow access to a global community of more than 250,000 colleagues and alumni of the university.
According to the page titled “Election of the next Chancellor” (archive) on Oxford University’s website, five candidates (archive) were shortlisted for the second round, which took place in the sixth week of the Michaelmas Term, corresponding with the week that started on 18 November 2024.
Oxford University announced William Hague as its new Chancellor on 27 November 2024.
Imran Khan’s unsuccessful bid
Khan was considered out of the race to become Oxford University’s next chancellor when the institute announced 38 shortlisted candidates — sans his name — on 16 October 2024.
The former Pakistani PM had submitted his nomination for the Oxford University Chancellor position, according to Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari (archive), one of his aides in the UK. In an X post (archive) after the rejection, he wrote the decision was “extremely unfortunate” and “a loss for Oxford Uni” and that his “lawyers have written to the university asking for their reasons”.
Earlier, Khan had said he would be “giving back” to the university that “helped me a lot in my formative years” by applying for the chancellor role, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Reports about his application for the Oxford chancellor role caused a flurry of activity, with op-eds published both in favour of and against his bid, an analysis stating his “odds look slim”, and petitions supporting as well as opposing his move viewable here, here, and here.
The Daily Mail’s website, MailOnline, reported that Oxford University had received “emails” and “a petition” and seen “protests” after the application by the “disgraced” prime minister; however, the tabloid did not provide any source.
Two Pakistani men had also apparently submitted “evidence” to the university hoping Khan would be “declared ineligible”.
Before the ex-PM’s bid for the Oxford Chancellor post turned out unsuccessful, multiple claims had emerged that Soch Fact Check promptly debunked. These started primarily after the London Evening Standard published (archive) a speculative piece titled “Boris Johnson vs Theresa May? The race for Oxford Chancellor is on”, which used phrases like “would be a predictable choice” and “obvious candidate” and included the PTI founder among the “more wild-card candidates”.
Among the claims we debunked were a false confirmation of Khan’s nomination as the Oxford University Chancellor in February 2024, clickbait videos that falsely claimed he was already appointed at the post, as well as posts asserting that British parliamentarians unanimously supported his candidacy and that Boris Johnson had withdrawn from the race to support the former Pakistani PM.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check observed certain errors that hinted at the screenshot being fake.
First, the profile picture associated with Oxford University’s X account in the viral screenshot does not match the original. The one in the claim has a curvy white border on the left side and a portion of the institute’s logo on the right is slightly cropped, as opposed to that of the original account, which has a blue border.
Oxford University’s authentic X account also has a clear blue checkmark — it appears as white checkmark on a blue background — next to its name, whereas the one in the viral screenshot is just a blue background with no white checkmark.
Secondly, we noticed that the text has shoddy grammar and punctuation; for example, the ‘c’ in chancellor should be capitalised and “favor” should be spelled as “favour”, in line with standard British spelling.
The word “translated” written in blue below the original English text appears to indicate that X translated the post into Urdu. While it is true that the platform has been available in right-to-left languages, such as Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu, since 2012, if a post was translated, the blue text would read: “Translated from [original language used in X post] by Google”.
Moreover, typically a phrase about the accuracy of the translation also appears below the translated text in an X post; it reads: “Was this translation accurate? Give us feedback so we can improve:”. This is followed by clickable thumbs up and thumbs down options. However, the same does not appear in the screenshot in question.
Soch Fact Check also noticed that the Urdu translation in the screenshot does not match the original English text, which would have ideally translated to:
“حکومت پاکستان کی درخواست کو قبول کرتے ہوئے ہم عمران خان کو چانسلر کے انتخاب کی دوڑ سے نااہل قرار دیتے ہیں۔ کہ عمران خان اسرائیل کے خلاف اور فلسطین کے حق میں ہے یہ بھی کہا گیا ہے کہ عمران خان طالبان کے حامی ہیں اور پاکستان میں اسلامی شریعت چاہتے ہیں۔”
The Urdu translation provided in the visual contains the words “درخواست میں جو الزامات لگائے گئے ہیں وہ سنگین قسم کے ہیں جس میں”, or “The allegations [or accusations] against him are serious [or of a serious nature], in which”; this is missing from the English text. It also uses the word “ہے” twice while referring to Khan; the proper translation would have included “ہیں”, which is more official.
Furthermore, the screenshot mentions “1.2K Retweets” and “4.5M Likes”. However, Elon Musk rebranded the social media platform after he bought it in 2022 and, in 2023, renamed “tweets” to “posts” and “retweets” to “reposts”. Since the Oxford Chancellor election is being held in 2024 and the post is dated 17 October 2024, the visual should have reflected this change.
In addition, while it is observed that social media posts about Imran Khan by international institutions or publications usually receive higher traction, the figure of 4.5 million likes is unrealistic. For comparison, Oxford University’s posts about Patten’s retirement announcement from 5 February 2024, history of the Chancellor post from 16 October 2024, and confirmation of 38 candidates’ successful applications from 16 October 2024 received 444 likes, 117 likes, and 859 likes, respectively.
The number of views from the X post in the visual is missing; in the screenshot of an authentic post, they would have been visible.
We also checked whether Oxford University posted about certain keywords that we identified from the claim. For example, the institute’s last post on “Pakistan” was published on 6 January 2024 and mentioned its work on improving representation of Pakistanis and British Pakistanis.
Oxford University’s last post on “Israel”, about legal research on the Israel-Gaza war, was published on 23 October 2024. Similarly, its last post about “Palestine”, published on 4 May 2018, was its own research, in which scientists had called “for ‘open-skies’ imagery policy over Israel and Palestine”.
We did not come across any post about “Imran”, “Imran Khan”, “Sharia” or “Taliban” by the University of Oxford.
Lastly, we reached out to Oxford University for a comment in this regard.
“I can confirm that this is not a post from the University of Oxford’s X account,” a spokesperson told Soch Fact Check via email.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
One of the posts that gained significant traction — which was shared over 2,500 times — can be found here.
The fake screenshot was also posted on Instagram here.
Conclusion: Oxford University did not post such a statement on its X account. A spokesperson confirmed the same to Soch Fact Check.
Background image in cover photo: Bradley Pritchard Jones
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