The sisters of incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday strongly criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership for what they described as “complete silence”, absence from the political and legal battlefield and failure to take any meaningful steps for their brother’s release.
“Where are Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Latif Khosa and Barrister Ali Zafar missing and why are they not pursuing cases?” Aleema Khan said while speaking to journalists outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), along with Uzma Khan and Noureen Khanum. Imran’s sisters reached the IHC to inquire about the cases regarding the PTI founder.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi also reached the high court and tried to meet Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar. The cricketer-turned-politician, 73, has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he claims were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 parliamentary vote.
Khan’s health has emerged as the latest point of contention between the government and the opposition comprising PTI and the TTAP alliance after a report, submitted to the Supreme Court by his lawyer and SC’s amicus curiae Barrister Salman Safdar. He was transferred to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad on late Monday, where he was administered a second dose of an anti-VEGF intravitreal injection as part of ongoing care for his diagnosed eye condition, the hospital said in the statement.
Speaking to reporters, Aleema noted her brother remained the central figure of national politics and the party itself. “He is our brother, and politics revolves around him. We will speak for our brother, no matter what Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi does,” she said. She added that regardless of what party leaders may say, the family would continue to raise its voice for her brother.
For her part, Imran’s sister Uzma Khan said the family often does not even know what is happening in his cases. “The party leadership is nowhere to be seen and there is complete silence,” she said. Aleema also said PTI lawyers had become members of parliament and themselves admitted that the vote belonged to the party founder. She recalled that Imran had once said PTI was an ideological party, questioning how it could be possible that a single statement against the interior minister could divide the party.
“If only a few people stood up and issued statements, it would not harm the party,” she added.
Referring to remarks made by Naqvi, Aleema asked why the party had not responded to his statement in which, she said, he blamed the sisters for the situation.
Aleema said her brother had repeatedly directed party lawyers to file legal petitions, but complained that neither the party chairman nor its lawyers had even managed to get cases registered, and were not visible anywhere.
She alleged that party leaders were making decisions on their own, without informing the family, and said that despite claiming to value Imran’s life, the leadership had maintained contact with Naqvi but failed to share information with the family. “If the family had been kept satisfied and informed, the situation would have been better,” she said, calling it shameful that party leaders alone continued making contacts.