Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan (ANI file photo)
Because they have not been allowed to meet him for weeks, his family says they are worried. Former Pakistan prime minister and World Cup–winning captain Imran Khan has been in jail for over two years. In recent days, rumours about his health, and even claims that he may have died, have spread widely on social media.
The anxiety deepened on Friday when Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan publicly demanded that the government prove the 73-year-old PTI founder is alive. Kasim Khan said the family has been kept completely in the dark: “My father has been under arrest for 845 days.
“We demand proof of Imran Khan’s life,” Kasim said in a social media post. While the government maintains that Imran Khan is being given all “possible facilities”, a senior cabinet member on Friday claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sohail Afridi was trying to meet Khan in violation of the jail manual, according to Dawn. Their implementation depends heavily on the inmate’s behaviour, making the process “necessarily subjective”, according to Dawn. Calling the situation “deliberate”, he added: “This absolute blackout is not a security protocol.
Information minister Atta Tarar’s remarks triggered a sharp response from the PTI, which insists its court-approved visiting schedule — Tuesdays and Thursdays — is not being honoured. But these rules are not absolute. For the past six weeks, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency. His sisters have been denied every visit, even with clear court orders allowing access. There have been no phone calls, no meetings and no proof of life. Me and my brother have had no contact with our father. Rather it is a deliberate attempt to hide my father’s condition and prevent our family from knowing whether he is safe… the Pakistani government and its handlers will be held fully accountable legally, morally and internationally for my father’s safety.”