UN chief calls for positive change in Imran’s situation

NEW YORK: Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has said that they hope for the circumstances of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to change constructively.

“We [UN Secretary-General] want to see the current political situation, the current situation of Mr [Imran] Khan, evolve in a much more positive way,” Guterres’s spokesperson said while responding to a query raised during a daily press briefing on Tuesday.

Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder, has been in jail since last August and was convicted in some cases ahead of a national election in February. Khan’s party claims the charges were politically motivated to thwart his return to power.

The question was: “The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued unanimously a recommendation to release Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, with no conditions. Does the SG support this recommendation?”

The UNWGAD stated in an opinion issued on Monday that Imran Khan’s detention was arbitrary and in violation of international law, adding that the jailed politician should be released immediately. The Geneva-based UN group on arbitrary detention said: “An 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.”

It further stated that Khan’s legal troubles were part of a “much larger campaign of repression” against him and his party [PTI]. It claimed that in the lead-up to the 2024 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.”

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday snubbed the UN report, calling Khan’s arrest and cases against him an “internal matter” of Pakistan. “The PTI founder has all the rights according to the country’s Constitution and law and international standards,” said the law minister in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Tarar said that the former prime minister was in jail as a convicted prisoner, adding that as an independent state, the Constitution and existing laws are enforced by the courts in Pakistan.