Kasim Khan, son of jailed former Pakistani leader Imran Khan, said authorities may be concealing “something irreversible” about his father’s health and that the family had no contact with him for more than three weeks.
“Not knowing whether your father is safe, injured or even alive is a form of psychological torture,” he told Reuters in writing, adding there had been no independently confirmed communication for a couple of months.
Court-ordered prison visits have been blocked amid rumours of a possible transfer. “Today we have no verifiable information at all about his condition,” Kasim said. “Our greatest fear is that something irreversible is being hidden from us.”
The family has also been denied access to let Imran’s personal physician into the jail for over a year.
A jail official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Imran was in good health and that there were no known plans to move him.
“This isolation is intentional,” Kasim said, accusing authorities of keeping his father cut off. “They are scared of him. He is Pakistan’s most popular leader, and they know they cannot defeat him democratically.”
The family says the communication blackout is part of a deliberate effort to push the former prime minister out of public sight.
Kasim and his older brother Suleiman Isa Khan live in London with their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, who has largely stayed away from Pakistan’s dynastic politics. Kasim said the last time they saw their father was in November 2022, when they visited after he survived an assassination attempt.
“That image has stayed with me ever since. Seeing our father in that state is something you don’t forget,” he said. “We were told he would recover with time. Now, after weeks of total silence and no proof of life, that memory carries a different weight.”
“This is not just a political dispute,” Kasim added. “It is a human rights emergency. Pressure must come from every direction. We draw strength from him, but we need to know he is safe.”
