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.
BREAKING: Spain's prime minister says regarding Iran war, that 'Spain is against this disaster' and that it is unacceptable for some to 'use the smoke of war to hide their failures' and 'fill the pockets of a few'.
Solidarity boats in Tunisia and Doha yesterday, Sanaa today, and Gaza everyday for the past two years. Is this the new norm in the region? Will Israel's bloodlust continue to only get stronger, or will the bully be constrained?
Stop scrolling. Imagine your murdered child in your hands. Imagine that is you, every memory with your child, every smile, laugh, tantrum, sleepless night, first words. It all comes to a crashing end because Israel murdered your child. Stop scrolling and feel their pain.
Israel is currently wiping out the two oldest neighborhoods in Gaza City:
Daraj and Zaytoon neighborhoods.
The whole world is complicit. No one STOPPED Israel. For over 22 months.
I’ve typed and deleted so many words to try to describe the pain, anger, and guilt. Just read his.
We will miss you Anas. We bear witness to your sacrifice and against your murderer.
May Allah have mercy on you and reunite you with all the pure souls before you.
Israel didn’t want you to see this picture. They told countries air dropping aid to not take footage. This is Gaza now. “Precision bombing”, “targeted strikes”. For years Palestinians told you they were being hunted down in an ethnic cleansing campaign. Now do you see it?
Children have become corpses carrying trauma in Gaza and also forced to act as parents for their younger siblings. Every single child in Gaza is either missing limbs or essential parts of their lives.
Congratulations, Israel. You’ve normalized footage of mutilated Palestinian bodies — men, women, and babies. Palestinian limbs, organs, and blood are now a normal sight. Dehumanizing Palestinians may be your cruelest success. May it be your greatest curse as well.
If you are in even the tiniest position of power to do anything about this and you try, you’ll never regret it even if it costs you personally and professionally. If you don’t you will live with the shame the rest of your life. This is one of those moments.