By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, accused the Pakistani government on Thursday of deliberately refusing to issue visas to her two sons so that any visit would leave them without British consular protection.
In a sharply worded post on X, Goldsmith responded directly to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, who had suggested a day earlier that Khan’s children, Suleiman and Kasim, who hold British passports and live in London, could simply travel to Pakistan on National Identity Cards for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOPs). No visa would be required, Tarar said, provided they “fully comply with the laws of Pakistan during their stay.”
“We all know that the reason you are refusing their visas and recommending they travel on Nicop cards (which they don’t have presently) is because that way they will have no British protection if you choose to arrest them on arrival,” Goldsmith wrote.
The exchange laid bare the deepening impasse surrounding Khan’s family access more than three years after the onetime cricket star and populist politician was jailed. Suleiman and Kasim, who have not seen their father since 2022 — when he survived an assassination attempt — have been trying for months to obtain visas to visit him at Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, where he is serving multiple sentences on charges his supporters dismiss as politically motivated.
Goldsmith’s public appeal to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif came after weeks of bureaucratic silence. In a post earlier this week, she noted that her sons had applied for visas again in January. Pakistani consulates routinely process online applications within seven to 10 working days, she wrote; more than 60 days had now passed. The delay persisted, she said, despite public assurances from senior officials. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had promised the boys could travel safely to see their father “after four years.”
Mosharraf Zaidi, the prime minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, had offered a similar commitment. Last month Kasim Khan publicly accused the government of “deliberately” refusing to process the applications. Tarar’s intervention on Wednesday appeared intended to defuse the controversy. In response to Goldsmith’s appeal, the minister wrote on X that Khan’s children were “welcome” to visit on their NICOP cards “as Pakistani citizens for which no visa is required.” He added that a telephone call between Khan and his sons would be arranged on Eid, as had been done previously.
But the caveat — full compliance with Pakistani law — and the insistence on the NICOP route rather than standard visas only sharpened the family’s suspicions. The government’s position has a complicated recent history. In August 2025, Khan’s sister Aleema Khan had to clarify publicly that the boys had applied for both NICOP renewals and visas after a junior interior minister questioned why they would need visas at all if they possessed the overseas identity cards. Those NICOP applications, according to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Khan founded, remain unanswered.
The PTI reacted with fury to the latest developments, issuing a statement that described the visa delays and the government’s stance as “not only deeply concerning, but also evidence that the government has failed to uphold basic human values and family rights.” The party called the prolonged processing “a deliberate delaying tactic aimed at political victimisation” of a man who had served as prime minister. It noted that the sons had applied for NICOP renewal “some time ago, yet no decision or response has been given so far,” adding that “this silence and delay itself expose the government’s bad faith.” “Sacrificing family relationships for political revenge is not only immoral, but also an open violation of human rights, which cannot be accepted under any circumstances,” the PTI said.
The family’s frustration is compounded by growing concern over Khan’s health. A medical board appointed by the Islamabad High Court completed a two-hour examination of the 73-year-old former prime minister on Wednesday at Adiala jail. The board — comprising an ENT specialist, a cardiologist and ophthalmologists from Al-Shifa Eye Hospital — was formed after the court rejected a petition to transfer Khan to a private facility and ordered an independent assessment instead.
According to a report submitted to the Supreme Court by Khan’s lawyer and the court-appointed amicus curiae Salman Safdar, Khan has been diagnosed with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), a serious condition in which the main vein draining blood from the retina becomes blocked. The ailment is often linked to cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease.Khan has already been taken under heavy security from Adiala jail to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad twice this year for eye treatment, most recently on Feb. 24. A third injection in the course of therapy is scheduled for March 23. The medical board is expected to submit its full recommendations to the chief commissioner shortly; the commissioner will then decide whether Khan requires treatment outside the prison.
The Islamabad High Court, in its order last week, stressed that prison authorities must keep relatives informed of any serious medical condition and that Khan must continue to receive visits from family and lawyers.For now, however, even those basic contacts remain tightly controlled. Goldsmith noted that her sons “are not allowed to speak to him on the phone, nor send him a letter.”
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