Ex-PM Boris Johnson urges British govt to use influence to help free Imran Khan

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has criticised the treatment of incarcerated former premier Imran Khan, calling for his appeal to be heard “speedily and by an independent court”.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Johnson described Imran’s prison conditions as harsh and said the former prime minister had been held in solitary confinement for extended periods. “In a small, dank, insect-infested cell in a Pakistani jail, a 73-year-old man is waiting to die,” he wrote.

He said that Khan is being kept in a cell measuring “only 6ft by 8ft, including the latrine” and said there was “no window”. “Sometimes the lights are switched off so he sits in blackness for days on end, waiting to be able to see again,” Johnson wrote.

He claimed that Imran Khan had been denied access to books, newspapers and visitors for long periods, leaving him “increasingly divorced from the outside world”.

The former UK PM said that Khan had been held in such conditions for more than three years and had lost 85 per cent of the sight in his right eye following what he described as “shoddy and delayed medical treatment”. He referred to concerns raised by the UN special rapporteur on torture, Amnesty International and Pakistan’s Supreme Court over Khan’s treatment and access to medical care.

“It is now more than three years since he has been incarcerated in these conditions,” he wrote.

Imran Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been imprisoned since August 2023 and is serving a 14-year sentence in the Al-Qadir Trust case. He has appealed against his conviction.

Johnson argued that the case did not justify Khan’s treatment in prison. “Even if it is true that Imran has some sort of case to answer in the so-called Al-Qadir case — and it is far from clear to me that he does — he has done nothing to deserve the kind of mental and physical torture he is getting,” he wrote.

“Above all, he deserves to have his appeal heard speedily and by an independent court.” “Imran Khan tried to change the way Pakistan works, and paid a price. That is essentially why he is in jail,” he wrote.

Johnson acknowledged that he knows and likes Khan, while also saying the former prime minister “wasn’t right about everything”. “I remember calling Imran the day after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and finding that he was far from totally solid in his condemnation of Moscow,” Johnson wrote.

“Nor was he 100 per cent sound on the Taliban,” he added.

Johnson nevertheless argued that Khan’s political positions did not justify his treatment in prison. The former British premier also praised Khan’s record on environmental issues and female education during his tenure as prime minister.

“He had great ideas on forestry and the environment. He understood the cardinal importance in that country of female literacy,” Johnson wrote.

He also highlighted Khan’s cricket career, describing him as “one of the greatest cricketing heroes Pakistan — or the world — has ever produced”.

He also criticised the UK government’s response to Khan’s imprisonment.