- Imran Khan has been in prison for a year
- He remains influential in Pakistan’s opposition politics
- His family and attorneys convey his messages
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, has been in prison for a year, yet you wouldn’t know it at times.
Mr Khan remains the major force in Pakistan’s opposition politics, with his name regularly appearing in the newspapers and courts. His social media supporters have been relentless.
With no public appearances, the few persons who can see the former cricketer on a regular basis – his attorneys and family – have become his conduit for messages to the outside world. They are eager to convey the notion that his 365 days in prison have left him unbowed.
“There is still a swagger about him,” Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khanum, adds. “He’s got no needs, no wants – only a cause.”
According to others who have visited him, Mr Khan spends his days riding his exercise bike, reading, and reflecting. He gets an hour each day to walk around the courtyard. There have been periodic arguments over how quickly the family can get him new books.
Ms Khanum said, “He has said, ‘I’m not wasting a minute of my time in jail; it’s an opportunity for me to gain more knowledge.’
However, Mr Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, remain in prison, with no indication that they would be released anytime soon.
According to some, this is not surprising.
There was no expectation that Mr Khan would do anything to help him get out of jail,” says Michael Kugelman, head of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington.
According to Mr Kugelman, the military, Pakistan’s dominant behind-the-scenes player, “doesn’t ease up when they decide there’s a political figure that they want to lock up. “That has especially been the case with Khan.
Indeed, the military has played a significant role in many of Mr Khan’s ups and downs during the past decade. Many commentators feel that his initial tight relationship with the military establishment helped him gain power.
But by May 9, last year, that was in shambles. Mr Khan, who was removed from power in a motion of no confidence in 2022, had been arrested, and his fans had gathered to protest.
Some of the protests became violent, with attacks on military buildings, including the official mansion of the most senior army official in Lahore, which was plundered and set on fire.
Pakistani media outlets were instructed not to show his image, mention his name, or use his voice.
Mr Khan was released, but only for a few months.
He was imprisoned again on August 5 for failing to declare the sale of state gifts properly, and that was just the beginning.
In the run-up to the election, the cases against him piled up; by the beginning of February, just days before the vote, the 71-year-old had received three lengthy prison sentences, the most recent for 14 years.
By the election, many of Mr Khan’s PTI candidates were in prison or hiding, and the party had lost its well-known symbol of a cricket bat, which is an essential identification in a country with a literacy rate of 58%.
Despite this, “we were determined and wanted to make a statement,” says Salman Akram Raja, Mr Khan’s lawyer and election candidate.
“It was limited; many people were unable to campaign at all. The removal of the cricket bat symbol was a body blow.
All candidates ran as independents, although even inside the party, expectations were low.
However, Imran Khan-backed candidates gained more seats than anybody else, pushing his political opponents to create an alliance to stop them. Meanwhile, the PTI was left fighting for several of their seats in court, alleging that the votes were rigged.
Supporters consider the February 8 election a watershed moment, demonstrating Mr Khan’s powerful message—even from behind bars.
“There is a change, as expressed on February 8,” says Aleema Khanum. “Change is coming; it is in the air.”
Others argue that the outcome has not altered the status quo.
“We are really where we might expect to be given past precedent,” Mr Kugelman adds.
“PTI didn’t form a government, its leader is still in jail, and parties backed by the military lead the coalition in power.”
But, more lately, things appeared to be improving for Mr Khan and his allies.
All three of the sentences handed down just before the election have been overturned, a United Nations panel declared his detention arbitrary, and Pakistan’s supreme court ruled that the PTI was an official party and should receive “reserve seats,” which are seats reserved for women and non-Muslims based on the proportion of seats the party won.
However, none has yet had a practical impact: Mr Khan is still in jail with additional charges against him, and the reserve seats have yet to be assigned.
His wife, Bushra Bibi, whose prison sentence was commuted when the case that deemed their marriage invalid was appealed, is still in prison on fresh accusations.
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Meanwhile, the administration has made it clear that Mr Khan and his party pose a public threat. It declared earlier this month that it will seek to ban the PTI, despite warnings from NGOs such as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The military also shows no sign of changing its stance. On May 9, May 9, this year, a statement from its public relations wing stated that there would be no compromise with the “planners, facilitators, and executioners” and that they would not be permitted to “hoodwink the law of the land.
Most commentators believe Mr Khan must first improve his relationship with the military in order to be released from prison.
“I think we can come up with an arrangement that gives everyone a way out and allows the system to function,” said Khan’s lawyer, Mr Raja.
Meanwhile, Mr Khan has been transmitting communications from jail.
Aleema Khanum recently stated that he advised the military to “stay neutral and let this country run,” referring to it as “the backbone of Pakistan.”
Some critics saw it as an olive gesture, albeit the usage of the term neutral was picked up on; when the army earlier declared itself neutral by not taking sides in politics, he mocked the expression, saying, “Only an animal is neutral.
Some view his recent proposal for hasty elections as one of his requirements for military service.
“I don’t think that’s very realistic,” says Mr Kugelman. “Khan may soften his stance with time. It is a cliché in Pakistani politics that if you want to be prime minister, you must be in the good graces, or not the bad graces, of the military.”
For the time being, the impasse persists.
