News
December 19, 2025
Imran’s Sons Planning to Visit Pakistan in January
London: PTI founder Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan has said he and his brother Suleiman have applied for their visas and are planning a trip to Pakistan in January, while also commenting on the conditions in which the ex-premier was kept and saying that he was being held in a “death cell”.
The remarks were made during an interview to Yalda Hakim for Sky News, which came as another sit-in held outside Adiala jail by Imran’s sisters over being denied a meeting with him was dispersed using water cannons; the party alleged that authorities used “chemical-laced” water.
As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked, Imran’s family and party have expressed concerns about the conditions in which he is being kept inside the prison. A United Nations special rapporteur has also warned that Imran is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment.
During their interview with Hakim, released early on Wednesday, Kasim and Suleiman, who live in London, were asked whether they had tried to engage with the Pakistani government to get permission to visit Imran.
Hakim also noted that they had previously talked about “being warned not to come” even though Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had said they “were welcome to come and can visit him [Imran]”.
At that, Kasim replied: “We are now planning to because they said it openly. So — unless they go against their word — we should be hopefully going in January. We have applied for our visas. […] It hasn’t come through yet. We are expecting it to come through, so we are planning a trip in January.”
Hakim then asked them what they would say to Imran upon seeing him, and whether they would ask him to consider “cutting a deal”.
But Kasim explained that “what you have to understand is it’s his life. It’s literally his passion and his goal. He calls it his life’s purpose to help rid Pakistan of corruption”.
“And so, if he just took a deal and came over to us and lived in England, I know there would be this burning desire and this aching that he has left his country for dead. And he would be depressed, to be honest. I know he would.
“This is his goal, and as much as we’d love to have our father watching all of our cricket matches or football matches over here, he has a purpose which is far greater. So, you can only respect it,” he said.
Asked what else they would want to say to Imran or what message they would like to send to him, Kasim said, “I want to know how we can get him out, how we can help because the main point is we feel so helpless at this point. I mean, there’s so much to catch up on.”
He also shared that during their interactions, Imran would always refuse to talk about his jail conditions.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, you know, don’t worry about me. How’s everything?’” Kasim said, adding that he would also enquire about their grandmother Lady Annabel Goldsmith, who died in October.
“We haven’t spoken to him since she died only a couple of months ago, and I would love to speak to him about that. He called her his mother after his own mother had passed, and their relationship was so close. So, I’d love to speak to him about that,” he added.
When Hakim asked them whether they think Imran “will ever get out”, their reply was not too optimistic.
“The conditions are getting worse. The people in power are becoming more entrenched. So, it’s very hard to see a way out and a lot of the people we speak to […] are seeming less and less confident every time we speak to them.
“So, we’re now worried we might never see him again,” Kasim said.
He added that while the defense minister had said that they were welcome to visit Imran, he had his doubts.
Suleiman also pointed out that Imran was “not the sort of person who’s going to make any compromises or cut a deal. So yeah, at the moment, that looks like the only easy route out, but I think international pressure is always an effective way of forcing change in these situations”.
‘Awful conditions’
Hakim also asked the two about the condition of Imran’s jail cell, to which Kasim said, “The conditions are awful. Like, they are not bad, they are awful.”
Suleiman said the cell in which Imran was kept had been described as a “death cell”.
“There are barely any lights, sometimes the electricity is cut off, there’s dirty water […] completely substandard conditions that don’t meet international laws for any sort of prisoner,” he claimed.
They were also asked about “what went through their minds” when they came across rumors about Imran’s possible death on social media.
Suleiman described that experience as “incredibly stressful”.
“I went straight to my family group chat because that’s the only reliable source that we have on the ground in Pakistan,” he added.
For his part, Kasim said coming across the rumors on social media was “jarring”.
It “obviously pulls you out of whatever you are trying to do in your normal life. Especially, [given] how helpless we are over here, not able to do much at all,” he said.
Hakim also brought up the subject of one of Imran’s sisters, Uzma, being allowed to meet him in jail in early December after weeks of restricted access. Following the meeting, a post on Imran’s X account against the military leadership, dubbed his message from jail, had led to a hard-hitting press briefing by Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.
Asked what Uzma shared with Kasim and Suleiman after the meeting, the latter replied that she had assured them that Imran was well but furious about the conditions he had been kept in.
“And he put out — he dictated a tweet (post on social media platform X) I think through her, or maybe potentially through her. And I think that tweet has partly led to this reaction from the establishment to completely try and isolate him,” Suleiman said.
When Hakim asked them what would be their message to the international community, Suleiman said, “At minimum, just to make sure that the standards of international human rights are being upheld, and right now they’re clearly being violated.
“We just want to ensure that basic human rights for our father are being respected,” he said… - Dawn
Courtesy Dawn
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