Who is Jemima Goldsmith and why is she fiercely defending jailed former Pakistan PM Imran Khan? What about Sulaiman and Kasim who…

Imran Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 and faces multiple charges.

New Delhi: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been a highly successful cricketer who led his country to numerous high-profile victories on the cricket. He retired from international cricket at the end of the 1987 Cricket World Cup but was asked by none other than the country’s President, General Zia-ul-Haq to come back and lead the team. Five years later in 1992, he led his team to their first and only world cup triumph. During his playing days he had been subjected to severe scrutiny concerning his Western lifestyle and huge popularity among women from across the continents.

In an orthodox Pakistan it was not seen very kindly and the chorus for him to get married and settle down got momentum.

Who is Jemima Goldsmith?

Imran Khan finally got married to British national Jemima Goldsmith on 16 May 1995, in a Nikah ceremony in Paris. A few months before the wedding, Jemima converted to Islam and changed her name to Haiqa and after her marriage, relocated to his hometown, Lahore, Pakistan, where she learned to speak Urdu and also wore traditional Pakistani clothes.

It was very difficult for Jemima/Haiqa to adjust to the ultra-conservative Pakistani society especially when her husband Imran Khan entered politics as he founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

When Jemima moved back to England

The couple have two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999). During the marriage Jemima actively participated in the charity drive for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre and also supported her Khan in starting his initial political career.

But it was not to be a happy union as she could not withstand the restrictions and cultural boundaries. They got divorced in 2004. Still the two are in touch and ever since Imran Khan was toppled from the post of the prime minister and jailed, Jemima has voiced her concern without any inhibition.

Jemima has not remarried!

What is the threat to Sulaiman and Kasim, their sons?

Jemima is very much worried about her ex-husband and has made no bones about it. The former wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan, has strongly condemned the Pakistani government after a top official threatened to arrest their sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, if they visit their father in prison.

“My children are not allowed to speak on the phone to their father Imran Khan. He has been in solitary confinement in prison for nearly two years. Pakistan’s government has now said if they go there to try to see him, they too will be arrested and put behind bars. This doesn’t happen in a democracy or a functioning state. This isn’t politics. It’s a personal vendetta,” Jemima posted on X.

What did Pakistan govt say about Imran Khan’s sons?

“If Imran Khan’s sons come to Pakistan and join the movement, they will be arrested,” said Rana Sanaullah, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Political Affairs during a private TV interview.

Outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Imran Khan’s sister Aleema revealed that Kasim and Suleiman, both based in the United Kingdom, plan to visit the United States to raise awareness about their father’s condition before traveling to Pakistan to support PTI’s political campaign.

Imran Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 and faces multiple charges, including corruption and terrorism, after being ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in April 2022.