ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Thursday said it has “taken note” of the discussions that took place at the British parliament this week where lawmakers demanded former prime minister Imran Khan be released from prison.
The UK parliament held a hearing on Tuesday that saw over a dozen British parliamentarians listen to members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party speaking about his incarceration, deteriorating law and order as well as growing censorship in Pakistan.
The event, jointly hosted by Conservative Peer Lord Daniel Hannan and British-Pakistani Labour MP Naz Shah, was attended by former Tory home secretary Priti Patel, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Labour MP Naushaba Khan, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon and others.
The hearing resolved that the parliamentarians will call on British PM Keir Starmer and State Secretary David Lammy for the UK government to take note of a recent United Nations report into Khan’s incarceration and demand his release from prison, Khan’s PTI party said.
During a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the hearing was a private event in a side room of the House of Lords, adding that it was organized by a “political party.”
“We have taken note of the discussions that took place,” she said. “As we have said on several occasions, it is important that members of legislative bodies contribute to promoting positive dynamics in bilateral relations and contribute to developing mutual understanding and mutual respect between Pakistan and the home country.”
Khan has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned.
After being acquitted on the last of those four convictions, authorities rearrested Khan and his wife in an old corruption case on charges of selling state gifts unlawfully.
He also faces an accusation of inciting his supporters to attack military installations in May last year. Khan denies all the accusations.
A UN panel of experts this month found that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”
Khan’s PTI party secured the largest number of seats in parliament in the February general election despite what it says is a military-backed crackdown that aims to keep him out of power. It also won nearly two dozen extra parliament seats after a court ruling last week.
