Jemima Goldsmith urges PM Shehbaz to grant early visas for Imran Khan’s sons

LONDON: Jemima Goldsmith, former wife of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to expedite visas for her two sons so they can visit their jailed father Imran Khan.

In a post on the social media platform X, Goldsmith said her sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, applied for visas in January but had yet to receive approval.

She said the Pakistan Consulate indicated that online visa applications normally take seven to 10 working days to process, but more than 60 days had passed.

Goldsmith said that public assurances by Khawaja Asif and PM adviser Mosharraf Zaidi that the sons could safely travel to Pakistan had not been honoured.

She said the two had been unable to speak to their father by phone or send him letters and had not seen him since 2022, when Khan survived an assassination attempt.

Goldsmith appealed directly to Sharif to allow the brothers to visit their father “as soon as possible”, citing reports about Khan’s declining health.

Earlier, plans to admit Imran Khan to a private hospital for medical treatment were cancelled at the last minute due to disagreements over the choice of doctors, party sources said.

PTI had requested that Khan be kept at Shifa International Hospital for at least 10 days, while the government agreed to hospitalisation under the condition that treatment details should not be disclosed and no party workers be allowed at the facility.

The family had suggested Dr Asim and Dr Azmi for the treatment, but the government rejected both names.

According to the sources, a later proposal of Dr Burki was also turned down by the government.

The government then suggested Dr Qasim Zaman, but both the family and Dr Zaman expressed concerns, preventing an agreement.