The Geneva-based U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Khan’s “immediate” release would be an “appropriate remedy.”
The United Nations Working Group on Human Rights has said that former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was arbitrarily imprisoned in violation of international law.
“The appropriate remedy is for Mr. Khan to be immediately released and for him to have an enforceable right to compensation or other reparation in accordance with international law,” the Geneva-based U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in an opinion published Monday.
“[The] “The Working Group concludes that his detention had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for public office. The charges against him from the outset therefore reportedly had no legal basis and were used for political purposes,” the UN group said in an article published by Pakistani news site Dawn.
Khan, 71, has been jailed since August last year and has been embroiled in more than 200 cases since he was removed as prime minister in April 2022. He claims the cases are politically motivated and engineered by political opponents to keep him out of power.
Last week, an Islamabad court rejected an application to suspend the sentences of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, whose marriage is illegal under Islamic law.
In April, Pakistan’s High Court suspended the 14-year prison sentences given to Khan and his wife in a corruption case, and this month Khan had a 10-year sentence for treason quashed.
But he remains in Adiala Prison, south of the capital, Islamabad, on a conviction for illegal marriage.
“The government will try to keep him in detention for as long as possible,” Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Sharif, said last week, according to AFP news agency.
Analysts say Pakistan’s powerful military, which has wielded enormous power through direct rule for decades, is likely behind the attacks.
Khan was ousted by a vote of no confidence in parliament after clashing with top generals who had once supported him.
He then launched an unprecedented campaign against them, accusing senior military officials of complicity in an assassination attempt in which he was shot dead during a political rally in November 2022. The military has denied the allegations.
Khan’s brief arrest in May 2023 triggered nationwide unrest that prompted a sweeping crackdown on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its senior leaders.
PTI candidates were forced to run as independents in February’s general election, but candidates loyal to the PTI still won more seats than any other party.
But they were kept from power by a broad coalition of parties allegedly loyal to the military.
Pakistan’s House of Representatives on Friday condemned a U.S. congressional resolution calling for an independent investigation into allegations that Pakistan’s elections this year were rigged.
Pakistan’s government expressed anger at the US resolution but Khan’s party welcomed it, saying its electoral victory had been turned into a defeat by the country’s election commission.
