Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said on Saturday that if PTI founder Imran Khan’s son have applied for Pakistani visas, then they would get them without facing any problem.
Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’, he said that the incarcerated ex-premier’s sons will be issued visas or National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) if they require them, adding that there will be no obstruction in the process.
He assured that if the tracking number of their visa application is shared with him, he will personally ensure that the issue is resolved.
Chaudhry reiterated that the government’s stance from day one has been to hold dialogue on national issues. He added that several attempts had been made in the past to initiate talks in this regard.
His statement came after ex-premier’s sister Aleema Khan said that Kasim and Sulaiman have applied for NICOP — the identity card issued to Pakistani citizens residing outside the country and allowing visa-free entry.
She told reporters that they possessed NICOP, but it had since then been lost.
Sulaiman and Kasim’s purported visit to Pakistan to meet their father. Recently, reports surfaced Khan had barred from travelling to Pakistan and partaking in any political activity.
However, soon after such reports surfaced, the party rubbished them, stating that there’s no doubt that Sulaiman (28) and Kasim (26) would visit Pakistan for their father.
The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August 2023 after he was booked in multiple cases ranging from corruption to terrorism since his ouster from power via the opposition’s no-trust motion in April 2022.
Kasim called attention to their father’s imprisonment for the first time publicly in May. Taking to X in June, he expressed concern over Imran’s condition in the jail.
He wrote: “My father, former prime minister Imran Khan, has now spent over 700 days in prison — held in solitary confinement. He is denied access to his lawyers, not allowed visits from his family, fully cut off from us (his children), and even his personal doctor is refused entry. This is not justice. It is a deliberate attempt to isolate and break a man who stands for rule of law, democracy and Pakistan.”
The former ruling party formally launched its anti-government campaign, set to reach its “peak” by August 5, following a high-level huddle in Lahore earlier this month.
Among other objectives, the protest movement is aimed at securing release of party founder Imran Khan, who will complete two years in jail on August 5.
The Imran Khan-founded party’s latest round of anti-government drive comes months after its negotiations with the government stalled over the issue of the formation of judicial commission to probe the May 9 riots and November 2024 Islamabad protest.
