Global Rallies Call for Former PM Imran Khan’s Release
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini
Washington: Pakistani American members of Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the popular and renowned cricket star, rallied across the globe August 4 calling for his release from jail and for justice in his case. August 5 was the first anniversary of his imprisonment.
Khan, the founder of PTI who served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 until 2022 was ousted from government in April of that year the result of a no-confidence vote. He was later convicted on corruption charges in abstentia, arrested and jailed in 2023 but was soon released after massive protests and riots by his supporters broke out across Pakistan. He has characterized the myriads of charges filed against him as “politically motivated” and continues to maintain his innocence. While some charges have been dropped, he remains jailed in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
The August 4 rally “We Stand for Imran Khan” saw PTI members and other Khan supporters proclaiming that “Together, we can make a difference!” Organizers of the rallies made universal demands to immediately release Khan from jail, to “Stand for Justice, for “Fair and Free Elections, a return to the Rule of Law, No Human Rights Violations and No Political Victimization.”
Many supporters wore t-shirts with Khan’s image emblazoned with a call to release “804,” referring to Khan’s prison inmate number. A few among the crowd wore t-shirts with the images of Donald Trump and Imran Khan printed with a message of “Friendship & Respect. Tigers will be back.” While some in the crowd cheered when one speaker called for support to reelect Donald Trump, others remained silent. One attendee confided in this reporter that those cheering had forgotten that it was Trump who authored the “Muslim Ban.”
That ban was issued on January 27, 2017, during Trump’s first week in office as Executive Order 13769, titled: “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” It prohibited people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. The ban was later overturned by an Executive Order issued by President Biden in January of 2021.
On the street just outside of the rally at Washington’s Freedom Plaza was an electronic billboard truck with several signs and messages regarding the rally referring to Imran Khan as “Pakistan’s Last Hope, Fighting till the Last Ball”, and noting that he is running for “Oxford University Chancellor from prison.”
(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affair, Countercurrents, and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)
