ISLAMABAD: PML-N leaders have issued differing statements on whether PTI founder Imran Khan’s sons would be allowed entry into Pakistan to run a political movement for their father’s release, with Senator Irfan Siddiqui saying they “can stage protests but within legal limitations”.
Imran’s sons — Suleman Khan (28) and Kasim Khan (26) — had called attention to their father’s incarceration for the first time publicly in May. Earlier this week, Imran’s sister Aleema Khan said the two brothers would come to Pakistan as part of an upcoming PTI protest movement.
Imran, imprisoned since August 2023 in a case related to state gifts , is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million graft case and and faces pending trials related to the May 9, 2023 riots.
Speaking on Geo News’ programme ‘Geo Pakistan’ today, Irfan Siddiqui said: “In my personal opinion — as the government has so far not taken any official stance — they should be allowed to come. They should come and carry out their activities.”
He noted that the sons have spent their entire lives abroad, so they would be “well-aware of what a protest is, how it is staged, and what the boundaries are that we cannot cross”.
“In my opinion, they should not be deprived of this right. If they want to run a movement for their father, then they should,” Siddiqui reiterated.
However, he also hinted at their potential arrests: “If they come here and cross the limitations of laws […] They will also come prepared for that, knowing that ‘if we are fighting the laws, then the law will take its course’.”
While Kasim recently posted on X about his father being “fully cut off” from the sons, he has not addressed the matter of joining Pakistan’s politics.
Although the government has not officially commented on the matter, Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik told that Article 16 was applicable to citizens and foreigners are not allowed to assemble in Pakistan.
Article 16 of the Constitution says that “every citizen shall have the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of public order.”
“Every country has visa conditions, including visit visas. If the visa conditions are violated, the visa can be cancelled,” he said.
To a question on whether they would be allowed to come to Pakistan, he said the interior ministry would have to look at whether the two had applied for a visa or not or possessed a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis.
He added that if they “violate the visa conditions, the visa can be cancelled”.
Last night, he said that the two brothers could not legally participate in local political activity as they were British nationals.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said the sons could face arrest if they led a violent movement, while Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said they “should come” to Pakistan.
Siddiqui downplayed the matter altogether, saying that the government was not considering it a “serious issue”. “This will not cause any political upheaval […] there will be no storm if his children come to Pakistan,” he said.
“Why these kids now?” he asked, giving an allegory of taking out two cards that were lying in a pocket deep inside.
He listed that neither Ali Amin Gandapur — the PTI’s only chief minister currently — could do anything for the PTI, nor their protests, or “revolt”, or the call to overseas Pakistanis to halt remittances .
“This card that they are playing will not succeed either. It will aggravate their difficulties because, in the end, politics is to be discussed at the table,” the PML-N senator asserted, referring to the PTI’s demand for Imran’s release.
Regarding talks, the PML-N leader said the only obstacle was Imran himself.
Siddiqui also highlighted various skill challenges that Imran’s sons would face in Pakistan’s political arena.
“Those children have not grown up in Pakistan’s environment at all. They might even melt if you leave them in Karachi’s heat on I.I. Chundrigar Road; those poor kids’ nature is such,” he quipped.
The lawmaker added: “They are maybe not able to speak in Urdu either, so they do not have a language to address this nation.”
However, he acknowledged that their faces were recognisable as they were Imran’s sons. “They are sensible, educated and must be politically well-aware as well.”
Siddiqui termed the potential entry of Imran’s sons into politics as a move to employ emotional appeal.
“They (the sons) are being called because [PTI’s] options within the land of Pakistan have been exhausted,” the lawmaker said, recalling the 2022 mass resignations and the May 9, 2023 riots .
He also pointed out that such a move would go against Imran’s “philosophy that has been against family politics very clearly”.
Asked by the show hosts whether he was underestimating the sons, given that the PPP’s Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari and his sisters entered politics despite having stayed abroad, Siddiqui replied that the latter had still not “gotten a chance to run a movement as the scenario had changed entirely” compared to the dictatorships in the 1900s.
The PML-N leader noted that ex-president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s wife Nusrat and daughter Benazir used to speak in Urdu and participated in a movement.
Meanwhile, Imran’s former spouse, Jemima Goldsmith, assailed the government for potential plans to arrest her sons if they visited Pakistan.
“My children are not allowed to speak on the phone to their father. He has been in solitary confinement in prison for nearly two years,” she wrote on X.
“Pakistan’s government has now said if they go there to try to see him, they too will be arrested and put behind bars,” she noted.
“This doesn’t happen in a democracy or a functioning state. This isn’t politics. It’s a personal vendetta,” Goldsmith lamented.
