Sons of Imran Khan voice fears for his safety

    The sons of Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan fear authorities are concealing "something irreversible" about his condition after more than three weeks with no evidence that he is still alive, one of them said.

As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked and rumours swirl about possible prison transfers, his son, Kasim Khan, told Reuters the family has had no direct or verifiable contact with Khan, despite a judicial order for weekly meetings.

"Not knowing whether your father is safe, injured or even alive is a form of psychological torture," he said in written remarks, adding that there had been no independently confirmed communication for a couple of months.

"Today we have no verifiable information at all about his condition," the son added. "Our greatest fear is that something irreversible is being hidden from us."

The family has repeatedly sought access for Khan's personal physician, who has not been allowed to examine him for more than a year, he added.

Pakistan's interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a jail official told Reuters that Khan was in good health, adding that he was not aware of any plan for a move to a higher-security facility.

Khan, 72, has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 parliamentary vote.

His first conviction centred on accusations that he unlawfully sold gifts received in office, in a proceeding widely referred to as the Toshakhana case.

Later verdicts added lengthy jail terms, including 10 years on accusations of leaking a diplomatic cable and 14 years in a separate graft case tied to the Al-Qadir Trust, a charity project prosecutors say figured in improper land deals.

Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), says the prosecutions aim to exclude him from public life and elections.

FAMILY ANXIETY DEEPENED BY LACK OF INFORMATION

The family says the lack of communication has fuelled fears over what it calls a deliberate effort to push Khan out of public sight.

Television channels have been told not to use Khan's name or image, leaving only a single grainy court picture on the internet as the only glimpse of him since his imprisonment.

"This isolation is intentional," Kasim said, referring to the authorities he believes are keeping his father cut off. "They are scared of him. He is Pakistan's most popular leader and they know they cannot defeat him democratically."

Kasim and his older brother Suleiman Isa Khan, who live in London with their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, have kept a distance from Pakistan's dynastic politics.

The brothers, who call him "Abba", have spoken publicly only sparingly mainly about Khan's imprisonment.

Kasim added that the last time they saw their father was in November 2022, when they visited Pakistan after he survived an assassination attempt.

"That image has stayed with me ever since. Seeing our father in that state is something you don't forget," Kasim said.

"We were told he would recover with time. Now, after weeks of total silence and no proof of life, that memory carries a different weight."

The family was pursuing internal and external avenues, such as appeals to international human rights organisations, and wanted court-ordered access restored immediately, he said.

"This is not just a political dispute," Kasim said. "It is a human rights emergency. Pressure must come from every direction. We draw strength from him, but we need to know he is safe."

Reuters