Pakistan’s Khan in jail for 3 years: PTI rallies over ‘arbitrary detention’

Published 5 August 2026 · world

Thousands of supporters of former PM Imran Khan’s party demonstrate across the country to call for his immediate release. Islamabad, Pakistan – As former Pakistani

Thousands of supporters of former PM Imran Khan’s party demonstrate across the country to call for his immediate release. Islamabad, Pakistan – As former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan marks three years in jail, his family, political party and a prominent international rights group have condemned his solitary detention and demanded a restoration of his constitutional rights. Amid heavy security on Wednesday, thousands of members and supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held demonstrations across the country to call for his immediate release. Khan, 73, served as Pakistan’s premier from 2018 until April 2022 when he was removed in a no-confidence vote he alleged to be a military-enabled conspiracy hatched with the United States, an allegation both Washington and the military denied. As Khan held rallies challenging his removal, he was first briefly arrested in May 2023 and later imprisoned on August 5 that year on several charges of corruption and revealing state secrets. He rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated. Since then, the cricketer-turned-politician and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have been convicted in several cases while the authorities launched a crackdown on the PTI, arresting its top leaders and banning the party from contesting the 2024 general election. Khan is currently serving a 14-year sentence for corruption while his wife was given seven years in the same case. In December, the couple was sentenced to an additional 17 years in prison in a case involving state gifts. “Three years. Thousands of days behind prison walls. Endless attempts to break his spirit. Yet they have failed,” PTI posted on X on Wednesday. “The struggle for democracy, constitutional rule, and the people’s right to choose their future does not end with arbitrary detentions,” it said as PTI members organised protests in several cities across Pakistan.

In a statement emailed to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the rights group Amnesty International said Khan has not seen his family for more than eight months and has had no meaningful access to his lawyers since December. “For three years, Pakistan’s authorities have systematically denied Imran Khan the right to a fair trial, subjected him to prolonged solitary confinement, and limited his access to medical care and visitation rights,” Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty’s acting regional director for South Asia, said in the statement. She urged Pakistani authorities to “unconditionally restore” the couple’s right to see their family and lawyers. “Both must be given access to adequate medical care and their solitary confinement, which is unlawful, should end immediately,” Lassee said, adding that the authorities should not repeat “the unlawful and arbitrary crackdowns” on PTI protesters. Two United Nations mechanisms have also separately concluded that Khan’s treatment in jail falls short of international standards. In July 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Khan’s detention “arbitrary”, warning that, given his age, which is now 73, he was “facing an effective sentence of life imprisonment”. In December, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Jill Edwards said Khan had been held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day under constant camera surveillance, warning that the conditions could amount to torture. A separate statement raised similar concerns about Bibi’s cell, which she described as unventilated, saying she had lost significant weight in custody. Concerns over health Meanwhile, Khan’s health has become one of the defining disputes at the beginning of his fourth year in custody. He was diagnosed with a retinal condition in his right eye in January and has since received five injections at a government hospital, allegedly without prior notice to his family or lawyers, according to the PTI.