- Imran Khan’s nephews arrested in latest crackdown, fuelling fears of collective punishment, while his sons abroad break their silence.
- Two decades of military-dynastic rule have gutted democracy and driven the rupee into free fall.
Pakistan’s most popular politician and former prime minister, Imran Khan, has faced years of imprisonment, disqualification and over a hundred legal charges widely condemned as bogus, politically motivated gimmicks. But the latest twist in his saga has shifted attention from Khan himself to his family.
In August 2025, Pakistani authorities arrested Khan’s nephews – Shahrez Khan and Shershah Khan, sons of his sister Aleema Khan – accusing them of involvement in the May 9 riots following Khan’s original arrest in 2023. The charges are historical, but their sudden enforcement suggests political timing.
Aleema Khan hit back forcefully, echoing her brother’s resilient style. Speaking to reporters on 23August, she insisted her sons were being targeted not for crimes but for bloodlines: “They are being punished for being Imran Khan’s nephews. Do we look like we will be scared?”
For many, the arrests look less like justice and more like a message – a signal that even Khan’s extended family is fair game. But this is not just about Aleema’s sons. It may also be a warning aimed at Khan’s own children abroad. That warning resonates louder because Khan’s own sons, once silent, have only just stepped into the spotlight.
The Sons Speak Out
For decades, Imran Khan’s children lived in London with their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, away from Pakistan’s political storms. They rarely spoke publicly, maintaining distance from their father’s battles. That changed this year when Kasim and Sulaiman Khan gave emotional interviews on platforms such as Mario Nawfal’s podcast and Piers Morgan Uncensored. For two young men who have guarded their privacy so closely to now step forward, it underlines just how dire the circumstances must really have become.
“We’ve gone through every route… we never thought he’d be in there this long… now we’ve decided the only route of taking action is to come and speak publicly,” Kasim explained, his voice cracking under the strain.
They described their father’s detention as “brutal” and “desperate”, denouncing restrictions on basic legal access. Strikingly, both declared they would be willing to travel to Pakistan to see conditions first-hand – despite knowing the dangers. That very statement may have spurred the current circumstances of their cousins.
The arrest of Shahrez and Shershah can be read as a warning shot: if Imran Khan’s British-national sons enter Pakistan, they too could be detained. That would risk sparking an international incident, drawing the UK and perhaps other governments directly into Pakistan’s domestic crisis – a red line the military establishment appears desperate to avoid, yet also willing to signal.
Imran Khan’s sons’ public stand underscored a wider reality. One that many Pakistanis feel privately – that this is no longer a political contest but a justice system that can bend to silence one man. To see why Khan’s persecution runs this deep, one must return to the moment he was removed from power and how that removal was engineered.
A Democratic Mandate Overturned
To understand why family members are being swept up in the crackdown, one must return to Khan’s ouster. In 2018, he was elected with one of the strongest mandates in Pakistan’s history, promising to break the cycle of dynastic politics and military dominance. By April 2022, he was gone, removed through a no-confidence vote orchestrated in parliament.
On paper, it was constitutional. In practice, it looked to many like an engineered coup. Central to the controversy was what became known as the Cipher Affair. Just weeks before his removal, Khan revealed a secret diplomatic cable – a cipher sent by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington – which he said showed U.S. displeasure with his government. According to Khan, the document warned that Pakistan would face consequences unless he was removed through parliament. The alleged triggers were his refusal to allow U.S. bases in Pakistan after the Afghanistan withdrawal, and his decision to remain neutral on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Washington denied involvement, and Pakistan’s National Security Committee later described the cable’s wording as “undiplomatic” but not evidence of a conspiracy. Yet for Khan and his supporters, it was proof that Western pressure, enforced by the military, had toppled a democratically elected prime minister.
His removal, at the behest of foreign powers, cleared the way for Pakistan’s old order to reassert itself – the Sharifs and Bhuttos sharing the civilian stage while the generals pulled the strings.
How Pakistan’s Generals Broke a Nation
What followed was a textbook playbook. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided formally, while Asif Zardari’s PPP secured influence. But while those two dynasties acted as a civilian shield, few doubt that Army Chief General Asim Munir holds the real authority.
The campaign against Khan since then has been relentless. Party leaders jailed, workers harassed, supporters monitored, media silenced, internet blackouts timed with protests, even family members dragged in. Khan himself has been buried in court cases, kept in isolation and cut off from meaningful political engagement. It is a textbook model of authoritarian containment. The formula is simple: eliminate the leader, weaken the movement and silence the base.
Yet the Establishment’s contradictions are exposed most clearly abroad. While it rules by force at home, it bends easily when courting global patrons. That paradox is captured in its unlikely embrace of Donald Trump.
Nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize
In mid-2025, General Munir surprised many by endorsing Donald Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his role in defusing India-Pakistan tensions. Days later, Munir was at the White House, photographed shaking hands with the U.S. president.
At home, a man for the people is crushed. Abroad, the same generals flatter a man whose record includes unwavering support for Israel and ordering “reckless” airstrikes on Iran. Trump’s supposed “peace” role came only after Pakistan retaliated against an Indian base following days of bombardment – hardly balanced mediation. That much should be obvious to anyone, least of all to a powerful general.
For many, Munir’s Nobel talk reeked of sycophancy, echoing an earlier chapter of Pakistan’s history. In 2001, General Pervez Musharraf bent Pakistan wholesale to Washington after 9/11, joining the U.S.-led war on terror. Billions in aid flowed to the military, but the long-term costs – terrorism, instability, and economic fragility – were paid by ordinary Pakistanis. The economic scars tell the story most clearly. Back then, £1 traded at just 69 Pakistani rupees. Two decades later, that same currency has collapsed nearly sixfold. The echo is painfully obvious – every time Pakistan’s rulers mortgage sovereignty abroad, its people pay the price at home.
The Deeper Cost
The Pakistani rupee tells the story in brutal clarity.
- 2001: £1 ≈ 69 PKR
- 2018 (Khan elected): £1 ≈ 155 PKR
- April 2022 (Khan ousted): £1 ≈ 210 PKR
- 2025: £1 ≈ 380–390 PKR
During Khan’s four-year term, the rupee fell about 35%. He was attacked relentlessly for it by the Sharifs, who painted the decline as proof of incompetence. Yet the record shows it was a controlled adjustment tied to IMF reforms after years of artificial overvaluation. By 2021, Pakistan had even achieved its first current account surplus in 17 years, with GDP growth of 5.6% despite the pandemic.
The true collapse came after his removal. From 2022 to 2025, the rupee lost nearly half its value in just three years, inflation hit 38%, and millions fell into poverty.
Regional comparisons sharpen the point:
Pakistan alone stands out as a regional outlier – its currency collapse is a stark mirror of its ongoing political dysfunction. That dysfunction has carried a double cost: economic ruin as the visible price and repression as its invisible twin. With the economy in tatters, the regime leans ever more on intimidation culminating in arrests that now extend deep into Khan’s family.
What the Nephews’ Arrests Signal
The arrests of Shahrez and Shershah Khan bring the story full circle. What began with Imran Khan’s own imprisonment has now reached deep into his family, widening the circle of punishment. It signals a strategy of intimidation and a reminder that even relatives are fair game.
But this is a dangerous gamble. The risk for Pakistan’s rulers is that such tactics may backfire. Each act of repression deepens the sense that Pakistan is being ruled through fear rather than consent. The more the state leans on intimidation, the greater the risk that its plots will spiral into consequences that reach far beyond its borders. For Khan’s family, and for millions who see their struggle reflected in his, the question now is whether Pakistan can break this cycle or whether the echoes of 2001 will keep repeating, each time at greater cost.
