PTI founder’s son says denying prisoners’ children the right to meet their father is collective punishment
Kasim Khan, son of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, on Wednesday addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), urging the body to intervene and pressure the Pakistani government for his father’s immediate release.
“We call on this council and the OHCHR to urge Pakistan to end this persecution immediately. They must comply with the opinion of the UN Working Group and must release my father,” Kasim said during the 61st session of the UNHRC.
Imran has been jailed since August 2023 and is currently serving a sentence in Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case. He also faces pending lawsuits under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) related to the May 9, 2023 protests.
The brothers have not seen their father since November 2022, after he survived an assassination attempt. They said they applied for visas in January this year but have not yet received a response.
Read more: Imran’s children do not need visas to visit Pakistan
In his address to the UNHRC, Kasim described his father’s prolonged detention and revealed that Imran has been held in a small cell designed for solitary confinement under constant surveillance for more than two and a half years.
“We have gone months without any contact, and the last time I spoke to him was a brief phone call. When we recently tried to travel to Pakistan to visit him, the government deliberately refused to process our visas,” he said. “Denying a prisoner’s children the right to see him is collective punishment. From the limited contact we had, I know my father is suffering,” he said.
He stressed that his father’s case was not isolated, but part of a much broader pattern of oppression in Pakistan since 2022. He also called the 2024 elections “rigged”, claiming they were designed to prevent his father’s political project from taking control.
Referring to Pakistan’s commitment under the GSP-plus to respect international human rights conventions, Kasim pointed out several violations, including the arbitrary detention of his father, his solitary confinement, denial of medical care, blocking of family visits and trial of civilians in military courts. “Each of them violates treaty obligations,” he said.
He further stated that he and his brother were not political people. “But my father’s life demands that we take action. We cannot stand by while his health deteriorates and he is kept away from us. That is the least we can do for him,” she added.
Also read: Imran’s children express concern for his health in jail
Imran was allowed to phone his children from Rawalpindi’s Adial jail on Eid day. The jailed PTI founder spoke to his children for 25 to 30 minutes. During the conversation, the children inquired about their father’s health, while Imran expressed his happiness at being able to talk to them on the festive occasion.
The PTI founder was taken out of the venue to a special room for the call and after the conversation, he was taken back to the venue.
Last week, Jemima Goldsmith, Imran’s ex-wife, made a direct appeal to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to allow her sons, Kasim and Sulaiman, to visit their father in prison.
In response, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that Imran’s children do not need visas to visit Pakistan and join their father, to which Jemima responded that the government was denying visas to her children, in an attempt to deprive them of British protection in the event of possible arrest upon arrival in Pakistan.
