The Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says the “appropriate remedy” would be to release Khan “immediately.”
A United Nations human rights working group says former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arbitrarily imprisoned in violation of international law.
In an opinion issued Monday, the Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the “appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Khan immediately and provide him with an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.”
“[The] The task force concludes that his detention had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office. Therefore, from the beginning, that prosecution was not based on law and was allegedly instrumentalized for a political purpose,” the UN group said, according to a report published on Pakistan's Dawn news website.
Since his dismissal as prime minister in April 2022, Khan, 71, has been involved in more than 200 legal cases and jailed since August last year. He believes the cases are politically motivated and were orchestrated by his political enemies to keep him out of power.
Last week, an Islamabad court rejected a petition to suspend the prison sentences of Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, whose marriage was declared illegal under Islamic law.
In April this year, a Pakistani high court suspended the 14-year prison sentences imposed on Khan and his wife in a corruption case. This month, Khan was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason.
But he remains in Adiala jail, south of the capital, Islamabad, on a conviction for illegal marriage.
Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said last week that “the government will try to keep him locked up as long as possible,” according to the AFP news agency.
Analysts say Pakistan's powerful military, which has ruled directly for decades and wields immense power, is likely behind the high number of cases.
Khan was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence after falling out with senior generals who had once supported him.
He then waged an unprecedented campaign against them, accusing senior army officers of conspiring in an assassination attempt in which he was shot during a political rally in November 2022. The military rejected the accusation.
Khan's brief arrest in May 2023 sparked unrest across the country, which in turn led to a widespread crackdown on his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and its top leaders.
PTI candidates were forced to stand as independents in the February general election, although candidates loyal to the PTI won more seats than any other party.
However, a broad coalition of parties considered loyal to the military kept them from power.
On Friday, Pakistan's lower house of parliament denounced a U.S. congressional resolution calling for an independent investigation into allegations that this year's Pakistani elections were rigged.
Although Pakistan's government expressed anger at the U.S. resolution, Khan's party praised it and said his election victory was turned into a defeat by the country's election commission.
