Inside the campaign to raise awareness about Imran Khan's plight

Whenever a call from an unrecognised Pakistani came, no matter what time of day or night, Kasim and Sulaiman Khan scrambled to answer.

It might have been their dad — legendary cricketer and former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan — calling from Rawalpindi's Adiala prison.

But for six months, there have been no calls at all and the brothers are worried. They say an aunt who saw him briefly in a military hospital told them his health was worsening.

"He seemed like he wasn't doing well, in terms of high blood pressure, heart palpitations and general anxiety," Khasim told 7.30.

"He seemed kind of disturbed by the long period of isolation that he's been facing. And as you know, it's very uncharacteristic of him to be anxious."

Political rise and fall

Imran Khan was an exceptional cricketer who leveraged his immense popularity as the captain of Pakistan's 1992 World Cup-winning side into a successful political career.

"He's fearless in a lot more than just kind of sporting sense," Kasim said.

"And I think now so more than ever been, because he kind of found faith and spirituality later in his life, at the tail end of his cricket career."

He won the backing of Pakistan's powerful military and was elected prime minister in 2018.

But by 2022 he had lost the support of the military, the University of Western Australia professor Samina Yasmeen said.

"They then did exactly the opposite of what they had done to bring him to power. So they got the people who had joined his coalition to gradually desert him," she said.

Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence that sparked huge protests in Pakistan before he was eventually charged with more than 100 offences, including corruption.

He was convicted and jailed for terms totalling more than 30 years.

Professor Yasmeen says a lot of the charges were "politically motivated", in her view, but some of them stuck.

"One, for example, which is still running, is the anti-terrorism case in which he is accused of mobilising people," she said.

Barely allowed outside

Khan has been in jail for more than three years in conditions that have been criticised by a UN working group and Amnesty International.

His sons say the conditions are tough.

"He's not allowed reading materials," Sulaiman said.

"He's barely allowed outside of his cell. It's a small, dark cell, extremely hot in the summer, with no kind of air conditioning or anything like that."

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered that Khan be treated by independent doctors in a private hospital, but his family and independent observers say that has been ignored by authorities.

"We're just trying to raise awareness about the conditions he's being kept in," Sulaiman said.

"There's been a Supreme Court order that he has treatment at a private hospital, he's allowed visits from his family, from his lawyers, that his health is independently reviewed and that he has calls with us.

"That's so far been completely ignored by the government."

Pakistan denies Khan is being mistreated, says he is medically fit and is allowed phone contact with his relatives.

Cricketers speak up for Khan

Former international cricket captains including Australia's Greg Chappell and England's Michael Atherton have written in support of Khan, asking that his conditions and medical treatment be improved.

Australian captain Pat Cummins has tweeted his support:

"I hope the court-ordered medical assessment be allowed to run its course, and that family visits continue. I hope Imran Khan is treated with the dignity anyone deserves," Cummins wrote.

The brothers said they were incredibly grateful to Cummins and the former cricketers.

"It's made a huge difference," Suleiman said.

"It's just raised awareness so much more than before, and it had really gone quiet for the 10 months while our father was in isolation.

"Things like that really bring this to the attention of people who otherwise wouldn't know what was going on."

It appears the criticism is having some impact — last week, after an interview with the brothers was recorded at Lord's Cricket Ground, Pakistan threatened to withdraw its players from their Test match against England.

The brothers say Pakistan's leaders clearly see their father as a threat.

"The intention is clearly to just remove him from politics completely," Suleiman told 7.30.

"I think when he was first imprisoned, if he'd just agreed to live in exile and not be involved in politics for the rest of his life, they would have loved that and they would have accepted it and allowed him to do that.

"I think they fear his popularity and they want to remove him from public life and from politics."

Professor Yasmeen agrees that Khan could have just quietly left the country before his conviction.

"I think every politician in Pakistan has the opportunity to leave Pakistan and live in exile and all the political leaders have done that," she said.

"Where Imran Khan possibly had that opportunity, but he refused to do that is because he wants to make sure that he's seen as someone different from all those who came before him."

Professor Yasmeen says Khan remains a formidable political force.

"Imran Khan isn't finished. Imran Khan commands huge support among young people and more than 60 per cent of Pakistan's population," she said.

"Even others who are not so young, who have been disillusioned with the way politics has worked in Pakistan, they also have sympathies for him. So there is a possibility that if he is brought back into the political space, that he might command that support again."

Suleiman says his father has not given up.

"While he's been in prison, I think part of what he's been doing has been strategising and imagining what he would do if he were in power now, what he might have done differently when he was in power," he said.

"I don't think he'd still be in prison if he'd given up hope of getting back into power one day, or at least influencing Pakistani politics in some way."

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