Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan arbitrarily detained, says UN working group

Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Khan’s imprisonment violates international law and demands ‘immediate’ release.

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 on Monday, the Geneva-based UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the “appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Khan immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law”.

“[The] working group concludes that his detention had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office. Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” the UN working group said in the opinion, which was dated March 25 but only made public on Monday.

The group, made up of five independent experts, whose opinions are not binding but carry reputational weight, said Khan’s legal woes were part of a “much larger campaign of repression” against him and his Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

It said that in the lead up to the 2024 general elections, members of Khan’s party were arrested and tortured and their rallies were disrupted. It also alleged “widespread fraud on election day, stealing dozens of parliamentary seats”.

The Pakistani government has not commented on the opinion yet. The country’s election commission denies the February elections were rigged.

Since his removal as prime minister in April 2022, Khan, 71, has been entangled in more than 200 legal cases and imprisoned since August last year. He calls the cases politically