Imran Khan’s son calls on world to stand up to Pakistan’s ‘tyrants’ as country braces for massive protest march
The son of jailed ex-Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has said the family faces a “disgraceful” crackdown ahead of a major protest march due to take place this Sunday.
Suleiman Khan, 29, urged Western governments to take a stand against the “tyrants” leading Pakistan and said the detention of three members of his family in the country was “intended to intimidate them ahead of Sunday’s protest”.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has called a march to the capital Islamabad on Sunday, with officials telling The Independent they are prepared for the demonstration to become a multi-day affair. The authorities have said they plan to stop the march happening, lining the streets of the capital with shipping containers and reportedly warning local hospitals to prepare for a “mass casualty event”.
Speaking to The Independent, Suleiman – Khan’s eldest son with his ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith, who alongside his younger brother is based in London – criticised the move to detain three of Khan’s Pakistan-based relatives, including his sister, ahead of the march. Dozens of PTI activists and party workers have also been detained.
“The abduction of our family members, including women and children, in the middle of the night, with no reasons given was absolutely disgraceful, and further evidence that this is a fascist regime,” he says.
Ahead of Sunday’s planned march, authorities detained three of Khan’s sisters and hundreds of party activists in recent days, citing a need to maintain public order.
The show of force is the starkest sign in years of how divisions between Khan’s PTI and the military-backed government have polarised the South Asian nation of 240 million.
Suleiman describes his father’s treatment in jail as “appalling and illegal”.
He says the “only thing we can do at the moment is continue to raise awareness … and speak to politicians about what is going on not only with the appalling and illegal way in which our father is being treated, but his family, party, and any dissenting members of the public”.
Kasim wrote on X: “You can arrest families and threaten people with violence. But you cannot imprison 250 million Pakistanis or crush the will of a generation. No regime is more powerful than its people. The world must watch as the people of Pakistan come together to demonstrate their plea for justice, even in the face of threats of violence.”
Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close ally of the jailed former prime minister, says the party was “100 per cent going ahead” with the nationwide protest.
“We’re looking at different variables of how to manage the flow of the protest. It’s not necessary that we will reduce it to one day. It could be stretched over several days. So these are strategies that we’re looking at,” Bukhari says, describing the latest crackdown on Khan’s immediate family and supporters as “deadly”.
On Sunday, police detained Khan’s sister Aleema at her home in Lahore under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law, according to Amnesty International. Hours later, authorities also detained his other sisters, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, along with several other relatives.
Party leaders condemned their “illegal harassment” and said Sunday’s “long march” will demand Khan’s release. It will also protest what they describe as the erosion of democracy under the ruling coalition government.
The government has made it clear that it does not intend to let the march reach Islamabad. Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi has warned PTI leaders against going ahead with the protest.
“We will … shut down the city for several days. We have clearly told them that they can never achieve anything through such drama, and I will say again that there is still time; they should not go into this situation,” he said.
“Do not harm yourself and your workers,” he warned the PTI leadership, urging it to adopt a “different approach”.
The government said the restrictions are about maintaining public order. However, critics have described the latest crackdown as heavy-handed.
“The pre-emptive arrests of PTI members come ahead of planned country-wide protests by the party on 27 September, which government officials have openly vowed to stop. Roadblocks are already being erected in Islamabad,” Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia, said in a statement.
“Amnesty International calls on the Pakistani authorities to immediately release Imran Khan’s relatives and PTI workers, who have been targeted simply for their familial ties, political affiliation and plans to protest,” the rights body said in the statement.
“These developments do not bode well, especially given the authorities’ long track record of reckless and unlawful use of force against protesters. A protest cannot be deemed violent before it has even started.”
Khan, 73, has been in prison since his arrest in August 2023 and is serving a 14-year sentence in a corruption case, alongside a separate 17-year sentence in the state-gifts case. His party says his health has deteriorated during his incarceration, particularly after a serious problem with his right eye.
Khan’s sons, Suleiman and Kasim, earlier this month told the Guardian that they fear their father was being “slowly killed” due to the condition of the prison he is in. They described his confinement as “a form of mental and physical torture”.
In an interview with The Independent last year in September, Khan’s younger son Kasim said: “The conditions my father is kept in are extremely harsh. He is confined to what is effectively a death cell, with poor hygiene and no proper facilities.”
Pakistan’s government has rejected allegations that Khan is being mistreated.
The dispute over Khan’s health has also become a central part of PTI’s justification for the fresh protests.
Bukhari says the party had initially waited for the courts and government to address its concerns. “We kept our cool all the way through, but unfortunately, you know, they’ve ridiculed the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he says, referring to the apex court’s recent order regarding Khan’s medical treatment.
The Supreme Court in August ordered Khan’s transfer to a private hospital from jail, meeting a longstanding demand of his party and family, who had raised concerns about his health. He was briefly taken to hospital, declared medically fit and sent back to prison within a few hours, a surprise move that his supporters and party said violated the top court’s directive.
Bukhari says the protests were about “showing the love and support of Imran Khan in the country”, insisting that they will be peaceful.
The government has been tightening security, reportedly placing over 2000 shipping containers on roads and bringing in police personnel from other provinces. Authorities are also indefinitely closing major roads and highways into the capital, according to reports.
More than 22,000 security personnel were expected to be deployed in Islamabad, while more than 30,000 would be stationed in Attock district, a key link between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
The marches were expected to head towards Islamabad from Karachi, around 1,150km to the southwest, and Lahore, about 270km to the southeast.
Police in neighbouring Rawalpindi, Islamabad’s twin city, have separately requested an additional 9,000 personnel to support the local administration.
According to Dropsite News, Pakistan is putting Islamabad hospitals on emergency footing and directing them to prepare for a possible “mass casualty incident”, including postponing elective surgeries and recalling medical staff. The claim could not be independently verified.
Documents allegedly obtained by the outlet revealed that federal health authorities instructed hospitals in Islamabad to prepare for a potential “humanitarian crisis” and “mass casualty incident” ahead of the planned protest. (The Independent)
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