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.
Tonight, in a room full of cameras and fear, Jibran Nasir stood between a grieving family and the machinery built to erase them.
Like a man who still remembers that Allah is Al-Adal (the Just). That Allah loves justice, He commands it: “stand firmly for justice” (4:135)…even against yourselves, even against your own kin. Once in a while you see someone answer that order with their whole chest. I don’t cry easily, but injustice is my wound too, and watching someone fight for it like this, unbought, unafraid, deeply moved me to my core.
Tonight @MJibranNasir stood firm against a corrupt police machine, for a family with no one else. That’s a backbone. Rare. Real. What a man. May his justice-seeking spirit always thrive
I believe that Pakistan's nuclear program deserves a whole Netflix series.
Out of all nuclear countries,
we had the least resources,
no superpower backing,
5x bigger enemy,
& at least 2 nuclear powers (India & Israel) who planned to bomb our nuclear facilities.
and yet we got it.
The loss of an innocent life in the heart of Lahore is not a mere accident, it is a crime, and it has bowed my head in shame. Instead of accepting responsibility, facts were distorted to hide incompetence. Officers who cannot even secure an open manhole have no right to hold office. I will not rest until justice is served, the blood of the two daughters is accounted for, and every responsible officer is brought to punishment. Despite my relentless focus and repeated instructions, a poor life was lost to negligence and dereliction of duty, but what is even more painful is the attempt to suppress the truth. Let me be clear, the time of negligent and dishonest officers is over. I will stand as a shield for the family that was harassed instead of being given justice. In Punjab, every life will be valued, no matter how powerful the officer involved.
We need to get rid of uni romance in our dramas. Keep educational institutions and work place out of this, there are still people in this country who don't let their daughters go to unis and work, such dramas just further enforce their negative mindset