Imran’s sons planning to visit Pakistan in January, say ex-premier being held in ‘death cell’
PTI founder Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan has said he and his brother Suleiman have applied for their visas and are planning a trip to Pakistan in January, adding that their father was being held in a “death cell”.
The remarks were made during an interview to Yalda Hakim for Sky News which came as yet another sit-in held outside Adiala jail by Imran’s sisters over being denied a meeting with him was dispersed using water cannons; the party alleged that authorities used “chemical-laced” water.
As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked, Imran’s family and party have expressed concerns about the conditions in which he is being kept inside the prison.
During their interview with Hakim, released early on Wednesday, Kasim and Suleiman, who live in London, were asked whether they had tried to engage with the Pakistani government to get permission to visit Imran.
Hakim also noted that they had previously talked about “being warned not to come” even though Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said they “were welcome to come and can visit him [Imran]”.
At that, Kasim replied: “We are now planning to because they said it openly. So — unless they go against their word — we should be hopefully going in January. We have applied for our visas. […] It hasn’t come through yet. We are expecting it to come through, so we are planning a trip in January.”
Hakim also asked the two about the conditions in which Imran was kept inside the jail, to which Kasim said, “The conditions are awful. Like, they are not bad, they are awful.”
Suleiman said the cell in which Imran was kept had been described as a “death cell”.
“There are barely any lights, sometimes the electricity is cut off, there’s dirty water […] completely substandard conditions that don’t meet international laws for any sort of prisoner,” he added.
They were also asked about “what went through their minds” when they came across rumours about Imran’s possible death on social media.
Suleiman described that experience as “incredibly stressful”.
“I went straight to my family group chat because that’s the only reliable source that we have on the ground in Pakistan,” he added.
For his part, Kasim said coming across the rumours on social media was “jarring”.
It “obviously pulls you out of whatever you are trying to do in your normal life. Especially, [given] how helpless we are over here, not able to do much at all,” he said.
More to follow
