LONDON: It appears that the more authorities wish to keep former premier Imran Khan out of the public view, the more he rises to prominence overseas — at least as far as headlines go.

This week, two billionaire businessmen have tweeted in support of Mr Khan. Their concerns come days after his former wife Jemima Goldsmith made an impassioned plea for the PTI founder’s release, and urged authorities to let him contact his sons.

Prominent publications and figures in both the UK and the US have spoken about Mr Khan’s ordeal. Some even drew dark comparisons between him and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

On Tuesday, English business magnate Richard Branson tweeted a Time magazine piece detailing fears about Imran Khan’s deteriorating health, along with an old photo of him and Mr Khan with the post: “It’s not cricket. @ImranKhanPTI should be released immediately by Pakistan’s authorities. His arbitrary detention casts a dark shadow on respect for democracy and rule of law in Pakistan.”

Business magnate Richard Branson, Dr Lawrence Brilliant, philanthropist Jeffrey Skoll call for ending former PM’s detention

Jeffrey Skoll, a philanthropist, criticised his treatment.

“Imran Khan has been deposed, shot by a would-be assassin, deprived of his rights, and stuck in solitary confinement on invented charges despite orders from the Supreme Court to free him. It is unconscionable that a democracy can act this way while the world stands idly by,” he said in a tweet.

American epidemiologist Law­ren­ce Brilliant joined the chorus of posts, saying he had recently spent time with Mr Branson and PTI supporter Salman Ahmed.

“As a physician and friend of Pakistan, I have watched with pain and sadness at his deteriorating health status while a prisoner in round-the-clock solitary confinement. To make it worse, he has not been allowed reasonable visits from his own physician.

“His health status alone demands an immediate release to hospital or other good medical care before it is too late. What happened to Alexei Navalny in Russia’s gulag cannot be allowed to happen to @ImranKhanPTI.”

As Mr Khan’s prominent party members and activists have either been jailed or silenced, it seems that the task to keep his voice alive is left with those who can amplify their voices overseas.

Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, PTI’s UK-based leader, also appeared on the platform Zeteo this week, speaking to prominent US journalist and commentator, Mehdi Hasan.

The headline ‘Could Pakistan’s Imran Khan be killed in prison?’ was sent as an email to Zeteo readers, detailing Mr Hasan’s conversation with Mr Bukhari, in which he said that Imran Khan has become like “the Pakistani Mandela”.

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Bukhari said the heightened attempt by authorities to lock Mr Khan away in the last two weeks, cut off his electricity supply and put him in confinement has ignited this blitz.

“Whether he is in jail or outside it, Imran Khan has a voice. The state knows this and they know when it comes to key moments, like the passage of this recent constitutional amendment, Khan sahib will give his opinion and people will listen to him,” he said.

This renewed wave of international criticism follows a House of Lords hearing held earlier in the summer, where British parliamentarians highlighted the situation surrounding Mr Khan’s detention.

At the time, Conservative peer Lord Daniel Hannan and others proposed “internationalising” the issue, suggesting that the matter be taken up with US and Australian legislatures.

But whether these efforts to ‘internationalise’ Mr Khan’s predicament have any effect remains to be seen.

Kamal Alam, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Centre, said: “It’s clear the powers that be in the West don’t care about Imran. Yes, he has popular support and celebrity friends like Mick Jagger, Piers Morgan and Branson. But folks that matter don’t care as the international establishment — if one can use that word — are in bed with the Pakistan establishment.”

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2024