Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan’s son says he fears for his father’s life behind bars

Kasim Khan says he wakes up most mornings expecting to learn that his father has died in prison.

Kasim is the son of Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricket star-turned-prime minister who is serving a 14-year sentence on what he says are trumped up corruption charges.

Imran Khan’s family says he is being kept in solitary confinement for prolonged periods, has been denied access to adequate medical care for a worsening eye condition, and hasn’t been allowed to receive calls or visits from family members. Kasim hasn’t spoken to his father since March.

“We’re desperate to hear how he is,” Kasim told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “We’ve seen him go through really difficult situations throughout his life and … we’ve grown something of a thick skin. But this has been brutal.”

The jailed politician’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is challenging Pakistan’s government in court over Khan’s treatment, and is planning nationwide marches next week to demand his release.

Pakistan’s government has denied all allegations of mistreatment.

Allegations of torture

Khan served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to April 2022, at which point he was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

A year later, in August 2023, he was arrested on dozens of charges, and in January 2025, he was sentenced to 14 years on charges of land corruption.

He has denied all wrongdoing, telling Reuters that the military — which has ruled Pakistan for most of its history since independence in 1947 — and its intelligence agency are trying to destroy him and his political party.

Khan’s family and lawyers say his health is deteriorating in prison, and that he has a blood clot behind his right eye. 

His sister, Uzma Khan, has said Khan told her he has been repeatedly tortured behind bars.

Late last year, the UN special rapporteur on torture called on the Pakistani government to “take immediate and effective action to address reports of inhumane and undignified detention conditions.”

“Khan has reportedly been held for excessive periods in solitary confinement, confined for 23 hours a day in his cell, and with highly restricted access to the outside world,” Alice Jill Edwards said in a December 2025 statement. Solitary confinement for longer than 15 days constitutes psychological torture under international law, she said.

Pakistan calls allegations ‘fake propaganda’

Pakistan’s government did not respond to a request for comment from CBC before deadline. However, in a statement to the Guardian newspaper in the U.K., it dismissed the allegations of mistreatment against Khan as “fake propaganda.”

The government said Khan has access to home-cooked food, bottled water, exercise equipment, family visits and medical examinations.

“The government of Pakistan categorically rejects allegations that the convicted prisoner is being subjected to punitive solitary confinement, cruelty or deprivation,” the statement said.

Kasim called the government’s denials “blatant nonsense.” In August, Pakistan’s supreme court ordered the government to grant Khan access to his family and send him to a private hospital for a medical examination by his personal physician. Instead, the government sent him to a state-run hospital due to what it called a “security situation created by PTI workers” along the planned route.

Khan was deemed medically fit and immediately returned to prison.

“If they are treating him so well, what is the fear of obeying the supreme court and allowing him to go and get a medical checkup from an unbiased independent hospital,” Kasim said. “What are they afraid of?”

The PTI has filed contempt of court charges against the government, and a ruling is expected soon. 

Calls for international intervention

Khan remains popular in Pakistan. But when he was in power, he was accused of corruption, press censorship and jailing his opponents.

Most notably, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was imprisoned on corruption charges while Khan was prime minister.

But Kasim notes that, unlike Khan, Sharif was granted bail on medical grounds and sent to the U.K. for treatment.

“The difference now is that they’re torturing my father in a way which is so brutal,” Kasim said. “He’s wearing an eyepatch, for God’s sake, and is being stuck in solitary confinement.”

Kasim says his father’s only chance at freedom is if the international community intervenes on his behalf.

That seems unlikely with the U.S., he said, as President Donald Trump has grown close to Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, who Kasim accuses of having a “personal vendetta” against his father. 

“I won’t say too much, but we are making inroads elsewhere,” Kasim said.

In July, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Michael Kram presented a petition to the House of Commons calling on Canada to “publicly call for the immediate release of Mr. Imran Khan on humanitarian grounds.”

At the time, Global Affairs responded that Canada “continues to monitor the situation” but “does not interfere in Pakistan’s domestic political affairs or legal processes.” CBC has reached out to Global Affairs for comment.