PTI founder Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan has said he and his brother Suleiman have applied for their visas and are planning a trip to Pakistan in January, adding that their father was being held in a “death cell”.
The remarks were made during an interview to Yalda Hakim for Sky News which came as yet another sit-in held outside Adiala jail by Imran’s sisters over being denied a meeting with him was dispersed using water cannons; the party alleged that authorities used “chemical-laced” water.
As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked, Imran’s family and party have expressed concerns about the conditions in which he is being kept inside the prison.
During their interview with Hakim, released early on Wednesday, Kasim and Suleiman, who live in London, were asked whether they had tried to engage with the Pakistani government to get permission to visit Imran.
Hakim also noted that they had previously talked about “being warned not to come” even though Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said they “were welcome to come and can visit him [Imran]”.
At that, Kasim replied: “We are now planning to because they said it openly. So — unless they go against their word — we should be hopefully going in January. We have applied for our visas. […] It hasn’t come through yet. We are expecting it to come through, so we are planning a trip in January.”
Yalda then asked them what they would say to Imran upon seeing him, and whether they would ask him to consider “cutting a deal”.
This, seemingly, was a reference to the possibility of a deal between Imran and Pakistan’s rulers for the ex-premier’s release from jail.
But Kasim explained that “what you have to understand is it’s his life. It’s literally his passion and his goal. He calls it his life purpose to help rid Pakistan of corruption”.
“And so if he just took a deal and came over to us and lived in England, I know there would be this burning desire and this aching that he has left his country for dead. And he would be depressed to be honest. I know he would.
“This is his goal, and as much as we’d love to have our father watching all of our cricket matches or football matches over here, he has a purpose which is far greater. So, you can only respect it.”
Asked what else they would want to say to Imran or what message they would to send to him, Kasim said, “I want to know how we can get him out, how we can help because the main point is we feel so helpless at this point. I mean, there’s so much to catch up on.”
He also shared that during their interactions, Imran would always refuse to talk about his conditions.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, you know, don’t worry about me. How’s everything?’” Kasim said, adding that he would also enquire about their grandmother Lady Annabel Goldsmith.
“We haven’t spoken to him since she died only a couple of months ago, and I would love to speak to him about that. He called her his mother after his own mother had passed, and their relationship was so close. So, I’d love to speak to him about that,” he added.
Hakim also asked the two about the conditions in which Imran was kept inside the jail, to which Kasim said, “The conditions are awful. Like, they are not bad, they are awful.”
Suleiman said the cell in which Imran was kept had been described as a “death cell”.
“There are barely any lights, sometimes the electricity is cut off, there’s dirty water […] completely substandard conditions that don’t meet international laws for any sort of prisoner,” he added.
They were also asked about “what went through their minds” when they came across rumours about Imran’s possible death on social media.
Suleiman described that experience as “incredibly stressful”.
“I went straight to my family group chat because that’s the only reliable source that we have on the ground in Pakistan,” he added.
For his part, Kasim said coming across the rumours on social media was “jarring”.
It “obviously pulls you out of whatever you are trying to do in your normal life. Especially, [given] how helpless we are over here, not able to do much at all,” he said.
Yalda also brought up the subject of one of Imran’s sisters, Uzma Khanum, being allowed to meet him in jail in early December after weeks of restricted access. Following the meeting, a post on Imran’s X account against the military leadership, dubbed his message from jail, had led to a hard-hitting press briefing by Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.
The military spokesperson launched an unusually scathing attack on the jailed former prime minister during the press conference.
Asked what Uzma shared with Kasim and Suleiman after the meeting, the latter of the two replied that she had assured them that Imran was well but furious about the conditions he had been kept in.
“And he put out — he dictated a tweet (post on social media platform X) I think through her, or maybe potentially through her. And I think that tweet has partly led to this reaction from the establishment to completely try and isolate him,” Suleiman said.
When Hakim asked them what would be their message to the international community, “global leaders, such as US President Donald Trump, Suleiman said, “At minimum, just to make sure that the standards of international human rights are being upheld, and right now they’re clearly being violated.”
“We just want to ensure that basic human rights for our father are being respected.”
He also highlighted the need for “independent monitoring” of Imran’s conditions “because we have no idea what it’s like until someone goes to see him and speaks to him”.
For his part, Kasim stressed the need for implementing court orders for Imran’s visitation rights, respecting the rule of law and allowing the PTI founder to see his personal physician.
During the interview, Hakim also asked them whether Imran was “critical of how you guys played cricket?”
That elicited a laugh from the two, with Suleiman saying he was “actually quite polite”.
Kasim recalled that he would say “you either have the kind of passion to be professional, and then he would push us. Or if we didn’t want to be [cricketers], then play it for fun and enjoyment”.
“And I think he realised it was probably the latter.”
He said previously they enjoyed cricket, but “not to the degree that we would play it professionally. Now we’re both kind of obsessed”.
More to follow
