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.
اے رب العالمین کروڑوں لوگ عمران احمد خان نیازی کی زندگی صحت و رہائی کے لئے دعا گو ہیں تیری بارگاہ میں
تیرے نبی آخرالزماں کا مقدمہ اقوامِ عالم کے سامنے جیسے اس نے لڑا ہم نے کسی کو نہ لڑتے دیکھا اور نہ سنا
تجھ سے اسکی صحت سلامتی و زندگی کی گارنٹی مانگتے ہیں اور وجہ اسکا نبی خاتمی مرتبت کی دنیا میں مدح سرائی کرنا ہے
يوم عرفة .. يوم المغفرة والرحمة وإكمال الدين وتمام النعمة .. اللهم تقبل من حجاج بيتك .. وتقبل من جميع المسلمين والمسلمات . وأعده علينا أعواماً عديدة وأزمنة مديدة..
كل عام وشعب الإمارات بخير .. كل عام ورئيس الإمارات وحكام الإمارات بخير .. كل عام والأمة الإسلامية في خير وسلام ورخاء واستقرار .. وعيد أضحى مبارك .. أعاده الله علينا وعليكم باليمن والخير والبركات.
Yesterday I spoke to my father. He asked me to relay the following message:
“The judges in this country should be ashamed of themselves. Time and time again we have gone to the judiciary. But they have sold their souls for their paid personal privileges. They have sold their integrity. They know they cannot break me, so they turn to my wife. How they can allow this inhumane treatment to Bushra BiBi, simply to blackmail me. She spends 24 hours a day in isolation, except for 30 minutes with me per week - and even that is often ignored. It is unislamic to harm women, children and the elderly - and their motives are plain and clear. The judges are responsible for the justice in a society. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
في "يوم الطفل الإماراتي" وفي عام الأسرة، نؤكد أن توفير بيئة آمنة ومستقرة ومزدهرة لجميع الأطفال في الإمارات، وترسيخ حب الوطن والتضحية من أجله في عقولهم ووجدانهم، أولوية قصوى وهدف أسمى واستثمار مهم في مستقبل الوطن. وفي ظل التحديات من حولنا سنواصل تربية أطفالنا وتنشئتهم على قيم الإنسانية والخير والتعايش التي تأسست عليها دولتنا، من منطلق إيماننا بأن هذا هو الطريق الذي يحمي مستقبل الأجيال القادمة، ويضمن التقدم والاستقرار للجميع.
@Sajwani@BeckyCNN Dubai is my second home. It has given me opportunity to earn a stable living, safety, security and a continous growth. It has given me a tolerant environment where I can live peacefully. Long live Dubai 🇦🇪