Family members of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan are expressing deep concern for the 73-year-old’s deteriorating health while he is incarcerated in a Rawalpindi prison, accusing officials of denying him necessary medical attention.
Khan’s sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, who are based in London, informed DW that they have been given virtually no updates regarding their father’s medical status.
“The last time we spoke to him by phone in March, he stated he had lost 85% of the vision in his right eye and that his complaints were ignored for months,” they reported.
The brothers further alleged that their father is confined to a cramped cell and is permitted outside for merely one or two hours daily. They also claimed that Khan was isolated from his family, legal counsel, and personal physician for ten months before being briefly allowed to see two of his sisters.
This warning comes as the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party prepares a protest march scheduled for September 27 to pressure Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government into releasing Khan.
Sons demand family access and medical care for Khan
Khan’s sons are demanding that authorities permit an independent medical evaluation for their father and restore regular access to his family and medical team.
“We are demanding that the Pakistani authorities immediately comply with Supreme Court orders and transfer our father to Shifa International Hospital for assessment by independent physicians,” they stated.
They also insisted that Khan be granted his mandated family visits, phone calls with his sons, and access to his personal doctor.
Khan’s sisters detained as PTI plans new protests
Despite his imprisonment, Khan remains at the epicenter of Pakistan’s political strife between the PTI and the nation’s powerful military. He also retains significant popularity across the country, even after being ousted from office via a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022.
With a PTI protest march planned for this weekend, Khan’s three sisters were arrested in the Punjab capital, Lahore, on Monday.
The detention orders alleged that the sisters posed a threat to public safety and order. All three were ordered to be held for 30 days under a public safety ordinance.
Khan’s sons told DW that these arrests were intended to intimidate their family and supporters prior to the planned rally.
“Our family members, who were arbitrarily taken into custody, must be released immediately,” they stated. “The abductions of our family members in the middle of the night, without any stated reason, were purely intended to intimidate them,” they added.
Khan was removed as prime minister in 2022 and subsequently jailed the following year on what he characterizes as politically motivated corruption charges. Khan’s family members and his PTI opposition party have faced an ongoing government crackdown.
Pakistan government calls for ‘order’
The Pakistani government has rejected the PTI’s characterization of the crackdown, asserting that its primary objective is to maintain public order during the upcoming protest.
Talal Chaudhary, Pakistan’s minister of state for interior, cautioned that the government will not tolerate any unlawful activities or actions threatening lives or property.
“If you are a peaceful citizen, come to Islamabad from any route, come 100 times,” Chaudhary told DW.
“But if you come as terrorists, we will not let you leave,” he warned.
In 2024, pro-Khan demonstrations in Islamabad turned violent, with protesters breaching high-security zones and clashing with security forces, resulting in six deaths. When Khan was first arrested in May 2023, nationwide PTI support rallies also led to violence, causing damage to military and government buildings, killing several people, and injuring hundreds.
Chaudhary reiterated that the government will not tolerate unlawful activity or actions threatening lives and property.
“The right to protest does not grant the right to attack,” he stated.
Authorities have bolstered security preparations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi ahead of the protest, deploying thousands of police officers and placing shipping containers and other barriers at key entry points.
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Arrests could ‘galvanize’ PTI supporters
The PTI has stated that the September 27 protest will demand Khan’s release and advocate for what the opposition describes as respect for constitutional and political rights.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told DW that the arrests will likely further energize Khan’s supporters ahead of the planned protest.
“The arrests will galvanize what is already an angry and anxious Khan support base,” Kugelman said.
The detention of Khan’s sisters, whom Kugelman described as “prominent advocates” of his cause, has also placed his family increasingly at the center of the confrontation between the government and the PTI.
Khan’s base is “concerned about the state of his health, and the detention of his sister will increase the likelihood that protesters take to the streets on the 27th,” he added.
Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close aide to Khan, stated that the arrests were meant to instill fear but will not prevent the party from mobilizing its supporters across the country.
“What they fail to realize is that all they are doing is generating more public hatred for themselves,” Bukhari told DW, referring to the government.
Bukhari described the current crackdown as the most severe the PTI has encountered. “This crackdown seems more brutal,” he said, adding that the government was acting out of frustration.
“They are fueling a fire that will soon be out of their control,” Bukhari asserted. “They can keep attacking us, and we will continue to resist. This protest will go on, and many more after it,” he added.
As Pakistan’s government grapples with several challenges, including economic difficulties, conflict with the Afghan Taliban, and fallout from the Iran war, further domestic unrest would be an unwelcome complication.
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