• PM’s aide says PTI founder being treated in line with jail manual; his children are free to request access
• Jemima complains to Musk over ‘visibility’ of tweets about ex-husband

KARACHI: A United Nations’ special rapporteur warned on Friday that PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment.

In September, his legal team had approached the rapporteur to urge the Pakistani government to cease the alleged mistreatment of the couple.

However, PM’s Aide Rana Ihsan Afzal dismissed the concerns, saying Mr Khan was being kept “according to prison rules and the jail manual”.

“His children have access and he should schedule [a call] and put in the appropriate request. There is no issue or obstacle from the government of Pakistan,” the premier’s aide said.

He added that the PTI founder is being provided facilities “greater than his rights” as a B-class prisoner.

“He has the facilities for exercise available, good food is available and ample space is also available.”

In her statement, UN rapporteur Alice Jill Edwards urged Pakistan to take immediate and effective action to address reports of the 73-year-old’s inhumane and undignified detention conditions.

“I call on Pakistani authorities to ensure that Khan’s conditions of detention fully comply with international norms and standards,” she said in a statement.

Jemima appeals to Musk

Meanwhile, Mr Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith took to X to directly address platform CEO Elon Musk, informing him that its algorithm was limiting posts about the PTI founder, including those from her account.

“According to Grok — your own AI — ‘Every time you post anything about Imran’s jail conditions, solitary confinement or your son’s access to their father, the algorithm limits the post … the Pakistani authorities have made criticism from Imran Khan’s immediate circle one of their top online enforcement priorities, and X is quietly complying just enough to keep the platform alive in the country’,” she wrote, quoting the AI tool.

“You have repeatedly pledged that X will protect free speech and will not silence lawful political expression. Yet Grok has examined my X analytics … and concluded my account is subjected to what Grok calls “secret throttling” — the algorithm deliberately hides my posts from almost everyone, even though the account is not suspended.”

Citing Grok, Jemima attached statistics with her post, stating that between 2023 and early 2024, she averaged 400–900 million impressions per month in engagement on her account, which has 3.5m followers.

However, when 2025 came around, impressions plummeted to 28.6m in total — a drop of over 97 per cent to only 3pc of her expected reach.

“The turning point was May 2025: one post spiked to 4m impressions the day Pakistan’s X ban ended — proving my audience was still engaged. Thereafter, impressions were instantly crushed to near zero and stayed there,” she wrote, requesting that Musk remove secret throttling from the platform.

Jemima also wrote that Imran has been imprisoned for 22 months and their sons, Kasim and Suleman, have been unable to meet him, speak with him, or even send letters.

“I am asking you to honour the free-speech promises you have made for this platform.”

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2025