1000 Days In Jail: Imran Khan’s Health, Isolation And Sons’ Emotional Fight

Former Pakistan captain and ex-PM Imran Khan has crossed 1000 days in jail amid growing concerns over his health, isolation, eyesight and denied family access. His sons Kasim and Suleman continue their emotional campaign for justice and medical care.

1000 Days In Jail Imran Khan’s Health, Isolation And Sons’ Emotional Fight (Image Source: Google)

The name Imran Khan is associated with many cricketing feats, but statisticians missed his latest record. Unfortunately, he is in jail for over 1000 days.

Imran Khan’s cricket credentials and his popularity are well known. He played from 1971 to 1992 in 88 Tests and 175 ODIs and even won the first World Cup for Pakistan in 1992. Many believe that he is among the greatest all-round players this game has seen and no doubt Pakistan’s top cricketer.

His sister Aleema Khan, along with his supporters, is continuing her weekly protest outside the prison, where the former Pakistan captain and PM is held. She is regularly filing petition after petition in different courts, claiming his illegal confinement as well as his torture. Aleema is also calling on her supporters to join the protest at the jail, to make more impact, ‘Come here and increase the pressure so that Imran Khan can receive treatment in a proper hospital.’

Imran Khan's supporters and those associated with his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, now banned, are holding protest sit-ins outside the Pakistani parliament regularly.

A group of former captains has also written to Pakistan’s government, requesting immediate medical attention for Imran Khan. This letter was drafted by former Australian captain Greg Chappell and was sent to Pakistan’s government with all requests for immediate medical help for Imran Khan as well as raising concern over the conditions of his imprisonment over more than two and a half years.

The signatories included Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Clive Lloyd, Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, John Wright, Michael Atherton, Michael Brearley, Belinda Clark, Kim Hughes, Nasser Hussain, Steve Waugh and David Gower, his contemporaries were serious, but they know that in this world, cricket and politics are two different games, but mixed when politicians want. It has however not helped Imran Khan, as the government has given them no reply.

It is regularly in the news that Imran Khan is not well and needs proper medical treatment during his incarceration, long denied to him. The concerns over his health going down, the mistreatment coupled with no help coming from any quarter during his imprisonment, simply made everyone aware of his condition but it didn’t help him.

Imran Khan’s sister rejects the Pakistan government’s claim that jailed ex-PM’s health is fine. It is alleged that Imran Khan can’t see properly and is left with only 15% vision in his right eye.

As per the record, he has been in prison since May 2023 on various charges. In the last few months, he lost his vision to a significant extent. As per the official version there is a significant improvement in his eyesight, but no one knows how true this claim is.

No one known to Imran Khan or his family has seen him in jail or has visited his cell, who can vouch for the facilities he is provided as a former PM. A surprise interest in this respect is from an unexpected quarter. His former wife Jemima Khan (formerly Jemima Goldsmith) has not stopped Imran’s sons, UK nationals Kasim, 26 and Suleman Khan, 29, visiting Pakistan to see him. They have been trying for a Pakistan visa for the last few months, but the official machine has neither processed, approved or denied it. Imran’s sister is following their application in Pakistan, but it has also not helped.

A tweet from Jemima: My sons Sulaiman & @kasim_khan_1999 applied for visas in January (again…) to allow them to visit their father @ImranKhanPTI in Pakistan. The Pakistani consulate states that online visa processing normally takes 7–10 working days. It has now been 60 days. This despite the public promise that they could safely travel there to see their father after 4 years, made by both the defence minister and home minister.’

The authorities in Pakistan have not allowed Kasim and Suleman to talk to him on the phone or any correspondence. They haven’t seen him since 2022 after he was shot in an assassination attempt. She made a direct appeal to Pakistan’s PM to please allow Imran Khan’s two sons to see their father asap, particularly since, by all accounts, his health is in decline.

As per the record, Imran’s wife, Bushra Bibi, is also there in solitary confinement 24 hours a day in the same jail. Some news reports from Pakistan claim that he has not been given access to TV, books, newspapers or any reading material. Even his lawyers or his party leaders are not allowed to meet him. When he is brought to court, a curfew-like scene is created, and the media is not allowed to take pictures or make videos.

The irony, as per Pakistan newspapers, is that so far no court has sentenced Imran Khan to solitary confinement in either the Al-Qadir Trust Case or the Toshakhana-II case. This means that his stay in isolation for approximately 22 hours daily is without any legal sanction.
Imran was sent to jail in May 2023 and was sent to Rawalpindi’s notorious Adiala jail in September 2023 after a second arrest. Imran is not the first Test cricketer to have been imprisoned, but none of them was PM of his country. His political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, was not permitted to contest the last general election, and its emblem ‘a cricket bat’ was banned. Many, taking his name and contesting as independents, still won, but this has not helped Imran’s cause.

In July 2024, a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention opined that Imran’s detention was arbitrary and in violation of international law. In December 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, urged the Pakistan government to take action to remedy the reports of its inhumane and undignified detention conditions and to make sure that they complied with international norms and standards.

As per a report from Mike Atherton (former England cricket captain) in The Times in March this year, his sons Kasim and Sulaiman were allowed to talk to their father, Imran Khan, for the first time since January for 28 minutes. They knew that their father is a political prisoner and is not keeping well, hence it was not easy for them to talk to him.

‘We asked how he is physically, but he’s quite dismissive of that stuff.’ He said, ‘I’m doing OK,’ and said his eyesight is getting a little better, so I took that as a positive. He was especially concerned this time about his wife; apparently her condition was just as bad as his. He said they know they are never going to break him, and he feels that he can handle anything, but when family and other people are involved, it gets tougher,’ Kasim informed.

‘He has learned how to meditate and go inside himself. Funnily enough, the torture tactics have taught him how to stay there for longer,’ Kasim says.
Both Kasim and Sulaiman are continuing their fight actively. They have gone to Geneva, where Kasim, the most vocal of the two brothers, spoke at a United Nations Human Rights Council event. They are pursuing their visa application so that they can visit their father but have not received any response. ‘They haven’t rejected them, but we applied back in January, and it normally takes, what, ten days? It’s been months now,’ Sulaiman says.

Officials have said they are welcome to travel on their National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) but their mother, Jemima Khan, posted on her social media platform, that would mean they would travel without the protections available to British citizens.

They are not sure as to when Imran will get the chance to roam free, but they are sure that their father will not cut a deal. ‘Obviously we want him released, but our main focus right now is to make sure he is getting proper treatment,’ Sulaiman says. They are mentally prepared, in their own minds, with the possibility of not seeing him again. It’s on record that Kasim used to hate him, being in politics when he was younger.

Once, after Imran’s stand-off with a politician in Karachi, a mafia sort of character, Kasim had begged him to get out of politics, but Imran didn’t agree. Imran Khan’s sons now say: Dad will never budge; he’d rather die in prison. He has already crossed the 1000- days mark. How many more days?