By Tooba Khan, Bilal Hussain and Dan Strumpf
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s life is at risk due to the conditions of his prison confinement, his sons said during an emotional news conference on Tuesday, adding that efforts to visit their jailed father have hit a wall.
“My father is the toughest person I know. But he is 73 years old, and his body is paying the price for how he is being treated,” Kasim Khan said during a press briefing via Zoom from London. “At this point its looking more likely than not that he won’t be able to survive this — his stay in prison.”
Kasim and his brother Sulaiman Isa also urged the international community to pressure Pakistan for human rights violations against its former premier, an ex-cricket star who remains one of Pakistan’s most popular leaders despite his three years of imprisonment.
Attention on Khan has intensified in recent weeks over concerns about his health. Earlier this month, the country’s top court ordered that he be transferred to a private hospital for medical treatment. The government challenged the order, and Khan was taken to a state-run hospital before being returned to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
A government spokesman said Khan was returned to prison after doctors found him in stable health.
Elected as prime minister in August 2018 under a coalition led by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Khan was ousted less than four years later in a no-confidence vote amid a deep economic slump. He was imprisoned the next year and has been convicted on a range of cases which he says are politically motivated.
Khan’s popularity has endured in Pakistan despite his prison stay, enjoying particularly strong support among younger voters.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Khan’s sons and his legal team accused authorities of housing him in inhumane conditions. Jared Genser, a lawyer for Khan, said the cricket legend was being held in a cell measuring 1.8 metres by 2.4 metres with no natural light for 23 hours a day and was not allowed contact with other prisoners.
In December, a UN torture expert raised concerns about Khan’s Adiala Jail conditions, saying he is held in a small cell that lacks natural light and adequate ventilation and warned the conditions could amount to torture.
Pakistani authorities dispute that Khan is being held in solitary confinement and say he has access to home-cooked food, exercise equipment and reading material in prison. Adiala jail officials told the Islamabad High Court earlier this month that Khan is housed in a seven-cell compound and can move around it during the day, and said his separation from other prisoners is for security reasons.
Tuesday’s press briefing comes a day after their mother and Imran Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Khan appealed in an X post to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to intervene, calling Khan’s imprisonment “torture” that is taking a “potentially fatal toll on his physical and mental health.”
Khan’s sons said they have sought to visit their jailed father, but Pakistani authorities have repeatedly stalled or rejected their visa applications as concerns grow over his health in custody.
“We would love to come to Pakistan but it is getting bleaker,” Kasim said. “If the govt says he is fine, I would love to challenge them to find out if he is or not.”
