IMRAN KHAN’s sons, Suleman Khan and Qasim Khan, have publicly appealed for their father's release from jail in a rare interview, saying they have exhausted all other options.
The sons of the former Pakistan prime minister and cricketer appeared in a live interview on X with citizen journalist Mario Nawfal, calling for international pressure on Pakistan.
“We’ve gone through the legal routes. We’ve gone through every route that we thought would potentially get him out,” said Qasim, 26. “We never thought he would be in there for a fraction of how long he’s been in there. And it’s only getting worse. And so we’ve somewhat run out of those options. And now we’ve decided the only route of taking action is to come and speak publicly.”
Khan, 72, has been detained since August 2023 and was sentenced to 14 years in prison in January in a corruption case. He is facing more than 100 charges, including corruption and selling state secrets, all of which he denies. He is currently in Adiala jail, Rawalpindi, and also facing anti-terrorism charges related to protests on 9 May 2023.
“What we want is international pressure on Pakistan right now, because currently he’s living in inhumane conditions,” said Qasim. “They’re not giving him basic human rights … they’re not really doing anywhere near enough.”
Suleman, 28, said, “We couldn’t stay quiet any longer,” while Qasim added, “We’ve never spoken before, but seeing what he’s going through, we couldn’t stay quiet.”
Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has repeatedly raised concerns about his detention conditions and has filed petitions in the Islamabad high court.
The brothers also appealed to former US president Donald Trump and other “people of influence” to help.
Khan, who was removed from office in 2022, is alleged to have been sidelined by Pakistan’s military.
His party claims the military is working with political opponents to keep him out of politics. Both the military and his rivals deny this.
