Islamabad: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants to see Imran Khan’s current situation “evolve in a much more positive way”, his spokesperson said, days after a UN panel termed cases against Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister as “politically motivated”.
Khan, 71, has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in the Toshakhana corruption case and subsequently sentenced in other cases ahead of the February 8 elections. The Toshakhana case sentence was suspended in April while Khan was acquitted in the cipher case last month. The only case in which he is convicted is about the violation of the Iddat period while marrying his current wife Bushra Bibi.
UN Secretary-General Guterres wants to see Khan’s current situation “evolve in a much more positive way”, his spokesperson said.
Dawn newspaper reported that when questioned in a press conference a day ago on whether the UN chief supported the UN group’s recommendation to immediately release Khan, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “It’s a recommendation from an independent panel. We want to see the current political situation, the current situation of Mr Khan, evolve in a much more positive way.”
The support by the UN chief came after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention — which has the mandate to investigate cases of deprivation of liberty by governments — had on Monday said the cases against Khan were “without legal basis” and “politically motivated” to exclude him from the political arena.
The panel said that the appropriate remedy would be to release and compensate the former prime minister. This was the second disapproval at the international level of the government’s action against Khan within a week after the passage of a US resolution last week calling upon Pakistan to thoroughly probe the allegation of irregularities in the February 8 elections.
Reacting to the development, the Pakistan government on Tuesday dismissed the plea, saying the jailed former prime minister’s arrest and the pending cases against him were “internal matters.”
Khan getting relief in many cases is “a manifestation of a transparent and fair trial and judicial system. Any demand beyond the constitution, law and international norms will be called discriminatory, biased and against justice,” Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said in a statement reacting to the UN agency’s report.
He also said that Pakistan as an independent state enforces the constitution and prevailing laws through the courts. “Imran Khan has all the rights according to the country’s constitution and law and international norms, he is in jail as a convicted prisoner,” Tarar said.
His remarks came after the embarrassing indictment of the Pakistan government as the UN group termed Khan’s detention in at least two cases as void of any legal basis.
The latest expression of support by the world body shows that Khan has been gaining support at the international level in favour of his plight, which should worry the government of Pakistan.
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