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Imran Khan’s son called upon the United Nations to intervene and urge Pakistan to end the incarceration of his father, alleging that the former prime minister was being subjected to “torture” in prison.

Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Kasim Khan said his father has been held in jail for nearly 1,000 days, confined to a solitary cell meant for death row inmates.

The speech and address at an event examining Pakistan’s prized Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade status with the European Union has triggered a political row in Pakistan, drawing condemnation from the country’s defence minister.

The cricketer-turned-politician is considered Pakistan’s most high-profile political prisoner. He has been in jail since August 2023, serving sentences for corruption and leaking state secrets, which he has claimed are part of a state-sponsored campaign to keep him out of power.

Imran Khan with his second wife Jemima Goldsmith during late Princess of Wales’ visit to Lahore in 1997. Kasim Khan is Khan and Goldsmith’s son (AFP via Getty Images)

The 73-year-old, deeply polarising figure has largely been kept in solitary confinement, according to his lawyers and party leaders, who have decried limited interaction with him. His family and leaders of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party he founded have raised an alarm over his deteriorating health condition in jail.

Kasim Khan told delegates: “I’m deeply concerned by the alarming rise of intolerance and persecution in Pakistan. We are witnessing a systematic campaign to dehumanise and silence specific segments of the population.”

“He [Imran Khan] has been the primary target of the region that treats dissent not as political disagreement but as a grave crime to be crushed,” he added.

Pakistani cricketer-turned-opposition leader and head of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan (L) arrives at the Supreme Court to attend a hearing on the Panama Papers in Islamabad on April 20, 2017 (AFP via Getty Images)

He said he has not seen his father in over three years. “This is not neglect, this is deliberate persecution designed to strip a human being of his dignity. The intolerance extends beyond him,” he said.

Imran Khan’s arrest and detention were part of a wider “climate of hatred” and persecution of people in Pakistan, he said, as Islamabad has “expanded its blasphemy laws to impose life imprisonment, and branded citizens as terrorists”.

“We ask this council and the OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) to urge Pakistan to end this persecution immediately. They must comply with the UN Working Groups’ opinion, and they must release my father and all political prisoners,” he concluded.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters hold portraits of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, as they protest against the alleged skewing in Pakistan’s national election, in Peshawar on March 10, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

A row erupted in Pakistan after it was suggested that Kasim Khan, and his brother Sulaiman Khan, joined by the former Pakistani minister Zulfi Bukhari, were lobbying for the revocation of Pakistan’s GSP+ status, which gives developing countries preferential access to the EU market.

Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif criticised the sons for “lobbying for revocation of GSP+ status” of Pakistan.

“If sons are so concerned about their father, instead of lobbying for revocation of GSP+ status, they should demonstrate their love and commitment, travel to Pakistan to visit him,” Mr Asif said in a post on social media.

Kasim Khan later clarified that he fully supports the scheme but said the “regime must also fully comply with the 27 treaties it committed to follow to obtain this benefit, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Convention Against Torture”.

The GSP+ trade scheme extended to Pakistan is already under scrutiny by the EU, which regularly monitors Pakistan’s compliance with the 27 conventions. Last year, the European Union ambassador to Pakistan, Raimundas Karoblis, said the country must “do more” to meet its commitments.

Granted in 2014, GSP+ helped boost Pakistan’s textile exports to the EU by 108 per cent through lower tariffs. The scheme was extended in 2023, with the current four-year cycle running until 2027. It will not be renewed automatically, but only after political and human rights reviews.

Imran Khan held a rare phone call with Kasim Khan on Eid last weekend and blasted the judges of the country, saying they “have sold their souls for personal gain” as he raised concerns over “inhumane treatment” of his wife Bushra Bibi in prison.

Imran Khan and his wife have already been sentenced to 14 and seven years in jail respectively, for corruption in a case related to a property trust. In December 2024, they were sentenced to 17 years in prison each in another corruption case involving the purchase of luxury state gifts.

It comes as his party and supporters have expressed growing concern over his health in prison after he was diagnosed with vision loss in one of his eyes.