Outrage over Imran Khan being kept in solitary confinement in windowless prison cell
Photographs of Imran Khan’s cramped, windowless prison cell have raised accusations that the Pakistani government is lying about his treatment in jail.
Supporters of the former prime minister have accused the Pakistani government of lying about his treatment in prison after photographs emerged of the cramped cell he is being kept in.
The government sent the pictures to the Supreme Court after Mr Khan, the cricketer-turned politician who was jailed on corruption charges in August last year, complained that he was being kept in solitary confinement and had no access to his lawyers.
Mr Khan and his supporters have long claimed that the cases against him were politically motivated. Earlier this week he was acquitted of leaking state secrets, but will remain in jail because of his conviction in another case.
Mr Khan and his third wife Bushra Bibi, a faith healer, are both serving prison sentences after a court ruled that their marriage in 2018 was un-Islamic and therefore illegal, because it came too soon after her divorce.
“Khan is now being kept in this tiny jail room, with no facilities, just for getting married,” Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said.
“As a former PM, Imran Khan is being denied his fundamental human rights, and basic facilities he’s entitled to by all this. History will remember this unprecedented fascism in Pakistan,” the PTI added.
The pictures released by the government showed a small room, with a basic bed, a desk and a bare concrete floor. There appears to be no window or natural light of any kind.
Zulfi Bukhari, a spokesman for Mr Khan, said that, as a former prime minister, Mr Khan was entitled to “an A-class cell” with a helper.
“Mr Khan never did complain about being kept in a facility with no access to natural light or a window,” he told The Telegraph.
Even in jail, Mr Khan remains a potent political force in Pakistan, and his supporters reacted with outrage at the images of the cell.
“Utterly disgraceful that someone is being forced to live in a horrendous 6x8 prison cell over a false allegation,” said Sadiya Mukhtar, a PTI supporter.
“Khan is a prince, who used to live in castles, and is now facing all the cruelties, brutalities, and barbarism for us. He is facing the situation with great determination. I want to tell him the whole nation is indebted to him,” she said.
Haniya Majeed, another Khan supporter, said: “Such unjust treatment for a leader who has tirelessly served the nation in every field and not just as a politician. This isolation is seen as a tactic to break his spirit and limit his influence.”
She added: “Khan is my leader, and I am proud of him,” she said.
