Imran Khan’s son has accused Pakistan’s government of locking his father in a “death cell” without contact from the outside world, as protesters continue to demand proof that he is alive.
Kasim Khan, the son of the cricketer turned politician, says his father has been denied visits from family members despite court orders permitting access.
My father has been under arrest for 845 days. For the past six weeks, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency. His sisters have been denied every visit, even with clear court orders allowing access. There have been no phone calls, no… pic.twitter.com/VZm26zM4OF
— Kasim Khan (@Kasim_Khan_1999) November 27, 2025
He said: “He has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency.
“There have been no phone calls, no meetings and no proof of life,” adding that the former prime minister has been kept in a dark cell that is normally reserved for prisoners on death row.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: “Keeping him in a death cell 22 hours a day, denying him his doctor, restricting family calls for six months at a time, cutting him off after we spoke publicly – that is psychological torture. It’s calculated cruelty designed to break him.”
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The 26-year-old, who lives in London, along with his elder brother Sulaiman Khan, 28, and mother Jemima Goldsmith, has appealed to the United Nations and global human rights organisations to intervene and “demand proof of life, enforce court-ordered access, end this inhumane isolation”.
“He [Khan] has no real access to sunlight, no ventilation, and the environment itself is meant to break someone down physically and mentally,” he said.
“It’s a desperate tactic to try and break him, but they’ve clearly underestimated his resilience. He won’t take some deal to save his skin whilst others suffer for fighting for democracy. That’s something that those in power can’t comprehend.”
Khan’s three sisters, Noreen Khan, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, and senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders are holding protests outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, pressing officials to show evidence of his wellbeing and to allow them a meeting.
They called off their overnight protest on Friday morning and went to the Islamabad High Court to seek contempt proceedings against the jail superintendent, whom they accuse of defying judicial orders permitting access to Khan.
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“Requests are ignored, delayed, or restricted. At times, he’s told outright that he cannot meet them. Even when courts order that he should be allowed access, the authorities drag their feet. The system has been designed not to uphold the law, but to strip him of it,” Kasim said.
Khan’s sisters say police officers assaulted and dragged them on the road when they tried to reach the jail earlier this week.
Rumours earlier this week spread rapidly across Pakistan and beyond, claiming Khan had been killed in custody. Both the Pakistan government and Khan’s party PTI denied the rumours.
Kasim said the Pakistani government and its handlers would be held fully accountable for his father’s safety and for the consequences of his isolation.
Khan is serving 14 years in prison over a corruption case in which he and his ex-wife, Bushra Bibi, were accused of receiving land as a bribe from a real-estate tycoon through a trust they had set up while he was in office.
Prosecutors say the Al-Qadir Trust was a front for Khan to illegally receive land from the businessman. Both Khan and Bibi pleaded not guilty to the charges, while Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the land was not for personal gain and was for the educational institution the former prime minister set up.
“If this was about corruption, the political elite of Pakistan would be in prison. He has been targeted because he represents change – because he challenged the status quo, spoke against the military establishment, and inspired millions of ordinary Pakistanis. Gave them hope. That is why they are trying to crush him. It’s political revenge,” Kasim said.
In March 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) termed Khan’s detention arbitrary and politically motivated.
Khan’s sons have urged Dr Alice Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, to investigate his case and press the Pakistani government to cease any further torture or ill-treatment of their father immediately.