Imran is fifth Pak ruler who studied at Oxford

LAHORE: Pakistan’s prime minister-in-waiting, 65-year-old Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, is poised to enter the club of global rulers who have studied at the 922-year-old University of Oxford, which is the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second oldest university in continuous operation after Italy’s University of Bologna, which was established in 1088, though the charter was granted 1158, research shows.

Should Imran take oath in a day or so to lead Pakistan, he will be the fifth Pakistani ruler after Liaquat Ali Khan, first prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former president and prime minister, former president Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari and Benazir Bhutto, ex-prime minister, to have studied at Oxford, which contributes around £5.8 billion to the UK economy and supports more than 50,000 full time jobs.

Globally, the impact is £7.1 billion. Overall, the report found that every £1 of university income returns £3.30 to the wider UK economy, states the Oxford University website.

Over the centuries, the notable and powerful from every continent on Earth - ranging from kings to prime ministers to presidents - have been Oxonians.

Synonymous with excellence in education and leadership, University of Oxford counts 27 British premiers including the incumbent Theresa May and her predecessors including Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Clement Attlee, Harold Macmillan, HH Asquith, William Gladstone and Sir Robert Peel etc, who have either studied or taught at this university throughout its history.

Here follows the list of some of the rulers of nations and other gifted men and women who have studied at Oxford:

King Henry V of England, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Bill Clinton, ex-President of the USA, Harald V, King of Norway, former Indian Premier Indira Gandhi, Australian Premiers Bob Hawke and Tony Abbott, another former Indian Premier, Manmohan Singh, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, former President of Ghana, John Kufuor, former Prime Minister of Ghana, Norman Manley, former Leader of Jamaica, Dom Mintoff, former Prime Minister of Malta, Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan, Raymond Robinson, former President of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Eric Williams, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Grantley Adams, former Premier of Barbados and Prime Minister of the West Indies, Tom Adams, former Prime Minister of Barbados, Solomon Bandaranaike, former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, Alvaro Uribe, president of Colombia and Seretse Khama, President of Botswana etc.

At least 30 other British and international politicians, banking executives, 50 Nobel Prize winners, 120 Olympic medal winners, writers, actors, global sportsmen and media tycoons have also been enrolled at Oxford, which is made up of 38 colleges and 6 independent halls, each with its own heritage and tradition.

These include David Miliband (chairman of the International Rescue Committee, and ex-foreign minister of the United Kingdom), Ed Milliband (leader of the British Labour Party), Burma’s leader of freedom, Aung San Suu Kyi, Albert Einstein (great physicist who was named Person of the Century by Time Magazine), famous media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (owner of News Corp, 21st Century Fox, the Wall Street Journal and The Times), Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn), Mark Carney (Bank of England president), Mansoor Ali Khan (Tiger) Pataudi, captain of the Indian cricket team, playwright, poet and author Oscar Wilde, legendary political economist Adam Smith, Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, TE Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, Tina Brown (the editor of Vanity Fair magazine and the New Yorker), Dr Frene Ginwala, former speaker of the South African National Assembly, William Golding, Nobel Prize-winning novelist, actor Hugh Grant, Sir John Gurdon, Lakshman Kadirgamar, eminent poet Percy Shelley, former Sri Lankan foreign minister, Arthur Mutambara, politician, former deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe, Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Pixley Seme, founder of the African National Congress, Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times Company and former director general of the BBC, William Harvey, scientist who discovered the circulation of the blood, Cecil Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes Scholarship and late physicist, Prof Stephen Hawking etc.