Imran Khan has been imprisoned since May 2023 (European News Agency)

In her small apartment in west London, Rubina Khan lists all the cases filed against her family members and their comrades in her native Pakistan, commenting on the announcement of her brother, the currently imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, of his victory in the Pakistani elections, despite the alleged efforts made by the army to thwart his campaign.

Thus, the British newspaper The Times paved the way for an exclusive interview it conducted with Robina (73 years old), at the beginning of which she said, “My brother has been in prison since May 2023, and two of my sisters must appear before the courts in different places throughout the country on charges of terrorism, and now also on charges of cybercrime.” .

The charge against her sister, Aleema Khan, according to a document that Rubina showed to the Times, is “spreading anti-state hate material through electronic and print media, insulting various state institutions and driving a wedge between the Pakistani army and the people.”

This former senior employee at the United Nations explained that her other sister is facing corruption charges for purchasing a piece of barren land adjacent to her farm in order to plant some palm trees.

She also points out that the Pakistani authorities kidnapped her sister's son and his wife, and another had to flee by speedboat from the city of Gwadar when they shot him. Her sister's driver has been in prison since May 2023, and an old family cook was also imprisoned, despite being on a ventilator. According to her saying.

It is noteworthy that Imran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister and cricket star, had his candidates achieve a stunning victory in Thursday’s elections in the biggest shock in the history of Pakistani elections, according to the Times, which said that the Pakistani army did everything in its power to prevent them from winning.

Khan (71 years old) was also sentenced in the past two weeks to 24 years in prison without trial, on a series of “strange” charges, including 7 years on charges of “illegal and un-Islamic marriage” to his third wife, according to the newspaper.

Although some officials of Khan's party abandoned him in exchange for their release from prisons, those who remained loyal to him were forced to run in the elections as independents, and were prohibited from using their popular party symbol, the cricket bat.

Instead, they were assigned less attractive objects such as a shoe, a donkey, or a mouse. With many candidates imprisoned or in hiding, and unable to organize rallies, they resorted to campaigns via social networks.

Even with this alleged restriction, and with the disruption of mobile phone services on election day and the kidnapping of some polling agents on the eve of voting, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party somehow emerged as the largest bloc, winning 100 seats out of 255 announced seats (out of a total of 266 seats). What the Times said some have called a “silent revolution” against decades of the military’s manipulation of politics.

According to the Times, this result caused panic in the nearby Pakistani army headquarters, which was anticipating that their preferred candidate, three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (74 years old), would come to power.

After decades of direct or indirect rule, the Times says, “Pakistan’s powerful generals may have gone beyond what is acceptable,” to which Rubina Khan comments, “All they did was make my brother more popular. They tried to kill him, then they locked him up using these cases.” They also imprisoned his colleagues, and even a woman with cancer,” she said.

Gohar Ali Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, during a press conference in Islamabad yesterday (Reuters)

Imran Khan is detained in a small cell infested with insects, and is allowed to meet five people together for half an hour every Tuesday, usually one of his sisters, nieces, and cousins. “He reads a lot, exercises, and eats simple prison food,” says Robina, adding. That her brother "has very simple taste, and is not complaining."

At the end of her interview, Khan's sister says, "Nawaz Sharif's dream is for Imran to return to London as he did...but I know my brother. We fight a lot, but I can guarantee 100% that he will not leave, so they do not know what to do."

Source: Times