ISLAMABAD: Prominent Pakistani-American fashion designer Khadijah Shah announced this week that she would relinquish her US nationality, saying that former prime minister Imran Khan had nominated her to represent his party in parliament on a reserved seat for women.
Shah, the founder of the luxury fashion brand Elan, was among thousands of people, including grassroots supporters and key Khan aides, who were rounded up after Khan’s arrest in a land graft case on May 9 unleashed nationwide protests in which his followers attacked and damaged government and military properties, including Lahore’s Jinnah House, the residence of a top army commander.
The designer, a vocal Khan supporter, was accused in four cases connected to the events of May 9 due to which she was imprisoned at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore for over six months. She secured bail in the last of these cases in November 2023 but an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore granted Quetta police a two-day transitory remand of the designer days later in a case in which she was accused of murder and attempted murder in the May 9 riots.
In December last year, she was released by the anti-terrorism court on bail for want of evidence, her lawyer said.
“Making the decision to relinquish my US citizenship, which guarantees freedom, safety, and opportunity, was not easy,” Shah wrote on the social media platform Instagram.
“However, Pakistan is my motherland, the place I call home, and the country where I’ve built my life. I cannot give up on it and my people.”
Pakistani law prohibits dual nationals from serving as members of parliament.
Shah spoke about her incarceration, saying she had suffered “unimaginable injustice” over the past year-and-a-half, adding that it had also inspired her to “make a difference for Pakistan.”
“I’m honored that Chairman PTI and my lifelong hero, Imran Khan, considered me worthy of representing his party and being part of his vision for Pakistan,” she said. “I accepted his offer to take the reserved seat and hope to live up to his expectations and those of my fellow citizens.”
Shah said that until her “dual nationality issue is resolved,” she has chosen Mehrunnisa Sajjad, a barrister and Oxford University graduate, to represent her in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and parliament.
“Like me, Mehrunnisa is passionate about fighting for the rights of the marginalized, establishing genuine democracy, and driving progress in Pakistan,” the designer wrote.
“I’m proud to have nominated such an exceptional young Pakistani woman to represent PTI and myself in parliament.”
Shah is the daughter of Dr. Salman Shah, a member of the finance team of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf. Her father had also served as an adviser in the Punjab government during Khan’s tenure as prime minister. She is the granddaughter of a former Pakistani army chief.
Khan’s PTI faced a widening crackdown after May 9, with thousands of his followers arrested and dozens of members of his party, including some of his closest aides, deserting him.
Khan, who ruled Pakistan as its prime minister from 2018 to April 2022, has been in jail since August 2023, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned.
Khan says all legal cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics and suppress his party’s popularity. Pakistan’s government and military deny these charges.
