The ongoing detention and shocking mistreatment of Imran Khan is a grave violation of human rights, democracy and basic decency.
I reiterate my calls for his release.
Prime Minister @andyburnham and Foreign Secretary @Ed_Miliband : how much longer will Britain remain silent?
For three years the father of my two sons, and Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has been brutally penalised by his political opponents, in a personal vendetta by Army Chief, Asim Munir, which according to the UN, amounts to torture and which is now taking a potentially fatal toll on his physical and mental health.
He has endured 3 years of solitary confinement. For nearly ten months now his family has been denied contact with him. He has been deprived of the most basic human contact, denied access to books, lawyers and doctors.
The international human-rights standards are unequivocal. Under the UN’s Nelson Mandela Rules, solitary confinement lasting more than 15 consecutive days is prohibited and amounts to torture.
He has endured this treatment not for 15 days, but for three years.
Pakistan’s own Supreme Court has now intervened: ordering comprehensive medical treatment, access to his personal doctor, regular family visits and twice-weekly calls with his sons.
Yet those orders are being defied.
This is no longer simply a Pakistani political matter. It is a human-rights emergency.
He has deep and lifelong ties to Britain. He studied at Oxford University, captained Oxford University cricket and spent years playing county cricket in England. His relationship with this country stretches back more than half a century. His charitable activities were internationally recognised, and include building the only free cancer hospital in Pakistan as well as a university.
His sons, my two boys, Sulaiman and Kasim, are British citizens. They have been forced to watch their father’s health decline from thousands of miles away, prevented from visiting him, denied visas, publicly threatened by government officials with arrest themselves, and even denied court-mandated regular phone calls.
I have repeatedly appealed to the UK government to intervene. Purported attempts at back channelling have evidently failed. The previous Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy informed me in writing that Britain would not intervene if my sons, British citizens, are arrested when they travel to Pakistan to visit their father.
@FCDOGovUK: Britain must now speak out publicly and unequivocally. Demand that Pakistan comply with its own Supreme Court; restore Imran Khan’s medical access, his right to see his family, end his prolonged isolation and uphold his fundamental human rights.
Pakistan is a Commonwealth country. Britain has a long and proud tradition of standing against arbitrary detention, inhumane treatment and the denial of fundamental rights. Those principles mean very little if we invoke them only selectively and neglect them when inconvenient.
This an appeal to the new Burnham government to please now do the right thing.
یہ فائدہ تو ہوا کہ عمران خان کا علاج ہو جائے گا۔ مگر جن شرائط پر اسے ہسپتال بھیجا جا رہا ہے، وہ بہت شرمناک ہیں۔ اس میں کوئی شک نہیں کہ عاصم منیر نے عمران خان پر جو ظلم ڈھائے ہیں، وہ شاید ہی کسی اور سیاسی قیدی پر ہوئے ہوں۔ مگر یہ جشن منانے کا وقت نہیں۔ یقین سے کہتا ہوں کہ اگر عمران خان کو پتا چل گیا کہ اسے ان شرائط پر ہسپتال بھیجا جا رہا ہے، تو وہ خود اٹھ کر واپس جیل چلا جائے گا۔
دراصل عاصم منیر اور اس کی فوج پھنس چکی ہے۔ مسئلہ ترمیم کا ہے۔ ن لیگ اور پیپلز پارٹی ترمیم کے وعدے سے بھاگ رہی ہیں۔ ان جماعتوں کی اپنی کوئی سیاسی قوت نہیں۔ انہیں صرف ترمیم پر آمادہ کرنے کے لیے یہ سب کیا جا رہا ہے۔ وہ بھی اپنی حیثیت جانتے ہیں؛ انہوں نے بالآخر آمادہ ہو جانا ہے۔ پھر فوج نے ایک منٹ لگائے بغیر عمران خان پر کیا جانے والا ظلم برقرار رکھنا ہے۔
بنگلہ دیش نے آج اپنی فوج کو بیرکوں میں واپس جانے کا حکم دے دیا ہے۔ تمام کاروبار ضبط کر لیے گئے ہیں اور فوج کو صرف بارڈرز تک محدود کر دیا گیا ہے۔ 6 جون 1985 سے کہہ رہا ہوں کہ ہماری فوج کو بھی بیرکوں میں واپس جانا پڑے گا۔ مجھے یقین ہے کہ اس ظلم سے قوم کو نجات عمران خان ہی دلائے گا۔
حکومت کے مطابق عمران خان کو اپنے ہی شہر میں غیر سرکاری ہسپتال میں علاج کروانے کا عدالتی فیصلہ غلط ہے۔ لیکن نواز شریف کو جیل سے لندن بھیجنے کا عدالتی فیصلہ عین قانونی تھا
"عمران خان کی فوری طور پر شفا انٹرنیشنل ہسپتال، اسلام آباد منتقلی کے حوالے سے سپریم کورٹ کا فیصلہ حتمی اور واضح ہے۔
طبی معائنے اور علاج سے متعلق اعلیٰ عدلیہ کے ان احکامات کی تعمیل میں مزید تاخیر یا رکاوٹ کا کوئی جواز نہیں۔ عدالتِ عظمیٰ کے فیصلے کا احترام کرتے ہوئے اس پر فوری اور من وعن عملدرآمد کیا جائے۔"
Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered that the country's imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan be taken to hospital for medical examination, following months of concern for his health.
Zulfi Bukhari, an advisor to Khan, tells Sky's @markaustintv it is a 'welcome step' but wishes the decision was taken months earlier.
Watch below⬇️
Imran Khan, the former Pakistan prime minister and legendary cricket captain, will be moved from his “death cell” in prison to hospital amid concerns about his health.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered on Tuesday that Khan, 73, should be moved to hospital, having been in jail for the last three years for a string of cases following his ousting as prime minister in 2022⤵️
https://t.co/BSFORuHRwb