The UN has called for the immediate release from prison of Pakistan’s former Premier Imran Khan, as reported by the Anadolu Agency, writing from Karachi. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions has found his detention to be both arbitrary and in violation of international law.
Khan’s troubles began, apparently, when he failed to fall in line with Washington’s demand, early in 2022, to condemn Moscow’s special military operation. The U.S. State Department communicated a threat against Khan to Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., and that ambassador reported the matter back to the government in Islamabad. Then, Khan had the effrontery to make the cable public, to substantiate his charge that Washington was demanding his removal from office. While almost 200 charges were leveled against him, the key one was that, while the head of the government, he had made the diplomatic cable public. He has spent almost one year in prison now, since last August. Despite massive dirty tricks against his political party, it won the most seats in the February general elections.
