ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned for over a year on multiple charges, raised concerns about Pakistan’s democracy in an interview published by a London-based TV channel on Tuesday, calling on the prime minister of the United Kingdom to ensure “freedom and fairness.”
Khan was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022 and has been in prison since last August. New charges were filed against him last month after all four convictions against him were either suspended or overturned by courts. The opposition leader says the legal cases are politically motivated and being pushed by his political opponents in the coalition government of PM Shehbaz Sharif, with the backing of the military. Both deny the charge.
The ex-premier’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won the most seats in Feb. 8 elections but not enough to form government, has complained about a massive state crackdown against its leaders and supporters before and after the polls, which it says were rigged. Many of Khan’s closest associates are in jail or have left his party, and critics of the government and the army widely complain of intimidation and harassment by state authorities, which reject the allegations.
In questions sent to Khan in prison last month by ITV, a major television network in Britain, he was asked if he wanted UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to amplify calls for his release.
“We have a collective duty to uphold the values of peace and strive for freedom and fairness for everyone,” Khan was quoted as saying in response, adding that the new British administration faced “tremendous responsibility and high expectations” on the global stage. “Where the UK stands in its commitment to these values will speak volumes.”
Starmer led Britain’s Labour Party to a landslide election victory, and last month became the country’s 58th prime minister, the first leader from the center-left party to win a UK national election since Tony Blair, who won three in a row starting in 1997.
Khan, who says February general elections were manipulated to deprive the PTI of its mandate, asked Starmer and his cabinet to imagine a situation where “their overwhelming victory was stolen.”
“Picture a scenario where a party that barely won 18 seats usurped your mandate, where your party symbols were stripped, and your leaders were imprisoned or tortured until they switched allegiances or left politics altogether,” he said.
“The people of Pakistan yearned for change, for democracy, and for the rule of law to prevail. Their votes were a cry for justice, self-determination, and freedom.”
Khan also painted a bleak picture of his “seven-by-eight-foot death cell” in Rawalpindi Jail, saying he faced constant surveillance and had no privacy. The government denies this and told the Supreme Court in June that Khan had an exercise bike, a separate kitchen, special menu, room cooler, study table and an LED TV.