ISLAMABAD: Rumors of former prime minister Imran Khan’s death are being spread to gauge the public’s reaction, his sister Aleema Khanum alleged this week.
Khan’s family has demanded jail authorities provide evidence he is alive and healthy amid growing rumors about his death online, saying that they have been denied visits for weeks. The chief minister of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a member of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, staged an overnight sit-in protest Thursday outside the central prison in Rawalpindi, where Khan is imprisoned, after being denied a meeting with the former premier.
The cricketer-turned-politician has been in jail since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated. Adiala Jail authorities have strongly denied rumors of his death, insisting that the 73-year-old politician remains inside the facility and is in good physical condition.
In an exclusive interview with Independent Urdu published on Saturday, Khanum said her sister Dr. Uzma Khan last met the former prime minister on Nov. 4. Since then, Khanum said the family has not received any reports of his condition from jail authorities. She said jail authorities had not entertained their request to allow a family member or lawyer to meet Khan even for a few minutes to verify whether he was healthy or not.
“Why are they not doing this? Or are they themselves spreading such news? Where did this news come from that he [Khan] has been killed? Where can this news come from? No news can reach us,” Khanum said.
“Someone told us, ‘They are doing a test run. They are doing a test run to check how the people react. This is how a test run is done to see if the people don’t react, if the reaction is manageable, then they might actually do something to him [Khan].’“
Khanum said the last time when her sister, Dr. Uzma Khan, met the PTI leader, he was “fit” and “healthy” despite being kept in isolation.
Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has also dismissed rumors of Khan’s death, insisting the PTI leader is healthy.
“There is a team of doctors that checks him on a weekly and daily basis [and looks after his] medicine, diet, facilities [and] exercises,” Sanaullah told ARY News, a private news channel, earlier this week.
Khan, who was ousted as prime minister after a parliamentary vote in April 2022, has criticized Pakistan’s powerful army general and his political opponents, accusing them of colluding to keep him away from power. The military and his political opponents deny Khan’s accusations strongly.
