Will Imran Khan’s sons join party’s August 5 protest?

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has clarified that his sons will not be coming to Pakistan to participate in the protest movement announced by the party.

Earlier, Aleema Khan – the sister of the incarcerated PTI leader – had told reporters that Imran Khan intended to lead a protest movement from jail against the 26th Amendment.

She had also claimed that his sons, Sulaiman and Qasim, would join the protest after returning from the United States.

However, during a court hearing at Adiala jail on Tuesday, where Imran Khan appeared along with his two lawyers, he was asked whether his sons, who had returned from the US to the UK, would take part in the August 5 protest. In response, he said, “No, they will not be coming for the protest.”

He said that if his sons were to visit him for a personal meeting, that would be a separate matter, and the court would certainly allow such a visit.

Meanwhile, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram has rejected media reports regarding Imran Khan’s children, saying the party founder did not bar his children from visiting Pakistan.

“Imran Khan has not stopped his children from coming to Pakistan,” the party spokesperson said in a statement posted on X.

“It urged journalists reporting from Adiala jail to broadcast Khan’s statements “exactly as he says them,” adding that presenting his words out of context or selectively was “inappropriate.”

Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Imran Khan’s sons would “remain safe” in Pakistan as long as they did not take the law into their own hands.

“A person taking part in politics or launching a movement must also be ready to face the consequences,” he told Asma Shirazi during “Faisla Aap Ka”, a prime-time talk show on HUM News.