Imran Khan's family, political party and fellow cricket players are sounding the alarm over his deteriorating health in prison. I spoke to his close aide Zulfi Bukhari about his latest condition and the court case his party's filing against the Pakistani government over Khan's hospital visit last week:
The Pakistan Cricket Board threatened that its team would not return to the pitch after lunch at Lord’s if Sky Sports aired an interview with Imran Khan’s sons
@willis_macp reports ⤵️
https://t.co/oFBHPNL6Pr
The PCB made a formal complaint to Sky Sports after the broadcaster aired an interview with the sons of former prime minister and captain Imran Khan during the lunch interval on the first day at Lord's https://t.co/lqJ92eDD4W
#StopRiskingImranKhansLife
Extremely thankful to International Media, cricket captains & human rights activists for raising voice against Torture on Imran Khan.
Here is the another big development as @SkySports airs this 18 mins interview of @Kasim_Khan_1999 & Sulaiman Khan with @Athersmike on how IK’s human rights are being violated blatantly in Pakistan by Asim Munir and Team!
Congratulations to you, @Jemima_Khan and IK, for raising such charismatic, thoughtful, and courageous young men. Samina and I watched Suleiman and Kasim’s candid, heartfelt, and revealing interview with Michael Atherton. They truly went to bat for their father at Lord’s, and remain unbeaten in their resolve and resilience to see Imran released from the hellish incarceration he has endured for the past three years.
As his friend and confidant, I am inspired by the boys’ repeated appeals to authorities around the world.
My message to Kasim and Suleiman: never give up hope; never surrender. That is what my song Jazba Junoon is about, and their legendary father embodies that spirit of passion and perseverance better than anyone on earth.
Thank you, too, for publicly voicing your concerns, alongside your brother Zak.
You are an extraordinary family.
I am confident that IK will, Insha’Allah, triumph over this dark and seemingly hopeless chapter in Pakistan’s history.
May the Junoon be with you always.
With love always,
Salman and Samina
@Kasim_Khan_1999@KhanShershah@Athersmike@cricinfo@SkySports
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.
🚨ویڈیو کو دیکھنے کے بعد خود پر فخر ضرور ہوگاجس امت مسلمہ لیڈر کے اپ سپورٹر ہے وہ اپ کی ضمیر کا آئینہ دار ہیں بیشک خان حق کےلیے قربانیاں دینی پڑھتی ھے
جس لیڈر نے والد کو میرٹ کو دیکھ کر دوسروں کو موقع دیا اس شخص پر ٹکے ٹکے کے لوگ اپنی تربیت پیدائش ظاہر کرتے ہیں
رشتوں اور سیاست کو الگ الگ رکھیں 🙏
بھائی کیلئے بہنوں کی محبت، بیٹوں کیلئے ماں کی شفقت وغیرہ اور کوششوں کا مذاق اڑانا ، بدترین اخلاقی گراوٹ ہے۔ ہم میں اللہ کا خوف ہونا چاہئیے اور سیاسی مخالفت میں اس قدر نیچ حرکتوں سے پرہیز کرنا چاہئیے۔ 💔