Over 40 US lawmakers write to President Biden to seek release of ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan, Pak foreign ministry directs media not to cover the story

The letter mentions that irregularities, state-led suppression, and election fraud marred national assembly elections held in Pakistan earlier this year. It pointed out that the Pakistani government prevented several election monitoring reports from being publicly released.

On the 15^th of November, over 40 US lawmakers called upon US President Joe Biden to advocate for the immediate release of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, along with all other political prisoners in the country and ensure their safety in line with the findings of the UN Working Group report. In a letter to outgoing President Biden, as many as 46 members of Congress urged Biden to take steps and act for the release of the incarcerated PM.

The letter mentions that irregularities, state-led suppression, and election fraud marred national assembly elections held in Pakistan earlier this year. It pointed out that the Pakistani government prevented several election monitoring reports from being publicly released.

“We are writing to urge you to take steps to act on the provisions of H. Res. 901, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin. This legislation brought together Democrats and Republicans in support of a change in U.S. policy focusing on escalating human rights violations and erosion of civil liberties in Pakistan in the aftermath of the flawed February 2024 National Assembly elections. These elections were characterized by widespread irregularities, electoral fraud, and state-led suppression of the country’s leading party, PTI—including disenfranchising the party in the leadup to the vote, as well as reversing precinct-level results, which showed an overwhelming victory for PTI-associated independent candidates. We note with concern that crucial election monitoring reports including the final reports by the Commonwealth Observer Group and a report from the European Union-were reportedly prevented from being made public by Pakistani authorities,” the letter states.

Lamenting Imran Khan’s alleged “lawful detention”, the US lawmakers called on the US government to advocate for the immediate release of Imran Khan and other “political prisoners”.

“A focal point of our concern is the unlawful detention of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, widely perceived to be Pakistan’s most popular political figure. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention-along with Amnesty International and leading human rights organizations from around the world-have called for Khan’s immediate release. Many activists associated with former Prime Minister Khan’s PTI party, including senior party leaders such as Yasmin Rashid and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, have been in detention for over a year. We urgently call on the U.S. government to advocate for the immediate release of former Prime Minister Khan and all political prisoners and to ensure their safety in line with the findings of the UN Working Group report. Given these alarming developments, we believe a change of approach at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is urgently needed,” the letter adds.

Sharing the letter of the US lawmakers to the outgoing President Joe Biden on X, the US unit of Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said, “46 members of the US House of Representatives, including members from both the Republican and Democratic parties, have written a letter to President Joe Biden calling for urgent action for the release of Imran Khan. The letter, jointly led by Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) @RepSusanWild and Rep. John James (R-MI) @RepJames, criticizes the role of the US Ambassador Donald Blome and his failure to “incorporate the concerns of the Pakistani American community in its work including meaningfully advocating for the release of political prisoners, the restoration of human rights, or respect for democratic principles.” This letter, supported by @PAKPAC, brings the total number of members of Congress who have responded to the concerns raised by the Pakistani-American diaspora in recent weeks to close to one hundred.”

Meanwhile, the US lawmakers’ letter demanding their government to advocate for Khan’s release from jail did not go down well with the Pakistani government and its Foreign Ministry is stopping Pakistani media from reporting about the said letter. In a press statement, they ‘advised’ its media not to propagate this news further.

“We reject the story attributed to the Foreign Office carried in today’s “The New International” and “The Jang”. We are taking the matter with the editors of the newspapers about their editorial standards and journalistic ethics. We advise the media to seek confirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before publishing stories attributed to them. We also advise the media not to propagate this story further,” a spokesperson of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

Notably, Imran Khan was ousted from premiership in 2022 when he lost a vote of confidence, following which he launched a strong comeback campaign attacking Pakistan’s military, whose leading generals had once backed him, and drew massive crowds. Khan was imprisoned in August last year on various charges from corruption to inciting violence.