THE ex-wife of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan called for his immediate release, citing “serious and concerning” reports about his treatment in prison.
Jemima Goldsmith said last Tuesday (15) the Pakistani authorities had stopped all visits to him by his family and lawyers, postponed court hearings, and prevented him calling his two sons since early September.
Electricity had been cut to his cell and he was no longer allowed out at any time, while the jail cook had been sent on leave, she wrote in a lengthy post on social media platform X.
“He is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world,” said Goldsmith, who was married to the former Pakistan cricket captain from 1995 to 2004. The couple have two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, who live in London.
A panel of UN experts in July criticised Pakistan for arbitrarily detaining Khan in breach of international law, to apparently stop him for running for political office.
Khan, 72, was prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022. He has been fighting more than 200 legal cases since he was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote that he claims was orchestrated by the country’s powerful generals.
He has been detained since August last year and barred from standing for office. He has since applied to become the next chancellor of Oxford University in the UK.
Goldsmith said Khan’s family had also been targeted, and his sisters and nephew arrested and jailed unlawfully. She had faced rape and death threats from her ex-husband’s political opponents.
The release of Khan, his nephew and sisters, plus the re-establishment of contact with his sons will provide “assurance first-hand that he is well and not being mistreated”, she added.
“I disagree with IK [Imran Khan] on many political issues,” she wrote in her social media post. “But this is not about politics – it’s about my children’s father, his human rights & international law.”
