Category: World

LAHORE, Pakistan, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Imran Khan, Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister, is in good physical health but facing isolation and psychological strain, his sister said on Tuesday, after a rare supervised visit following weeks in which his family said access had been blocked.

Uzma Khanum, one of Khan’s three sisters, was the only family member permitted to meet him in Adiala Jail, where supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had gathered outside to protest against conditions of his detention.

She told reporters her brother “looked healthy” but had been confined indoors for long periods with no communication with relatives or aides.

“He is physically well,” said Khanum, who is a doctor. “But he is kept inside all the time and only goes out for a short while. There is no contact with anybody.”

The meeting took place under strict supervision and without mobile devices, she said, declining to provide further details.

Khan, 73, who served as prime minister from 2018-2022, has been in jail since his August 2023 arrest on corruption charges and is serving sentences in several cases he says are politically motivated.

PTI says routine visits have been blocked for weeks despite court orders, fuelling rumours about his condition and possible prison transfers.

Authorities deny any mistreatment and say Khan is receiving all entitlements available to prisoners. Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said decisions about prison visits were up to jail officials and not under control of the government.

Last week, one of Khan’s sons told Reuters the family had no direct or verifiable contact with him for more than three weeks and “no verifiable information at all” about his condition, saying they feared “something irreversible” might be concealed.

They have also sought renewed access for his personal physician, who has not examined him for over a year.

Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission, an independent rights monitor, said in a post on X it was “seriously concerned” by reports that Khan had been subjected to restrictive detention conditions and limits on family meetings.

It called for regular access to relatives and legal counsel, which it described as a “fundamental safeguard against isolation and misuse of detention powers”, and urged authorities to comply with constitutional and international standards of humane treatment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he would end his Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise his army would take it by force.

The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces.

Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

“If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. “If they don’t, then we will achieve it by military means.”

Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The issue of occupied land, which Kyiv has said it will never cede, is among the biggest stumbling blocks in the peace process.

Another important issue in the talks are Western security guarantees for Ukraine, which Kyiv says are needed to prevent Moscow from invading again in the future.

Washington’s original plan — drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.

The US pared back the original plan over the weekend following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but has not yet released the new version.

Putin, who has seen the new plan, said it could be a negotiation starter.

“Overall, we agree that it could form the basis for future agreements,” he said of the latest draft, which the United States is thought to have shortened to about 20 points. But Russia was still seeking international recognition of the occupied territories, Putin added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, strongly denied that in an interview with US outlet The Atlantic published on Thursday.

“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” Yermak said.

“All we can realistically talk about right now is really to define the line of contact,” he said, referring to the sprawling 1,100 kilometre (700 mile) front line.

US negotiator Steve Witkoff was expected in Moscow next week to discuss the revised document, Putin said.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is meanwhile due to visit Kyiv later this week, according to Yermak.

– ‘Little can be done’ –

In his remarks Thursday, Putin repeated the claim that Russia had encircled the Ukrainian army in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region — the most fiercely embattled area and a key target for Moscow’s forces.

“Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov are completely surrounded,” he said, using the Russian names for the cities.

Moscow was also advancing in Vovchansk and Siversk, as well as approaching the important logistic hub of Guliaipole, he added.

The Russian offensive “is practically impossible to hold back, so there is little that can be done about it”, Putin said.

Ukraine has denied that Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are encircled, insisting its forces continue to hold the enemy along the front line.

Putin, in power for 25 years, also questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy and said signing any agreement with him would be legally “almost impossible” at the moment, a suggestion that has drawn groans from Kyiv and its allies.

According to data analysed by AFP from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces have conquered an average of 467 square kilometres (180 square miles) each month in 2025 — a step up from 2024.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.