Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

A 73-year-old British-American author and journalist, who sought an interview with Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has been deported after his tourist visa was revoked, a media report said on August 1.

Charles Glass, an author, journalist, broadcaster, and publisher who specialises in the Middle East, was told by law enforcement agencies on July 31 that his visa had been cancelled and he had five hours to leave the country, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Mr. Glass has served pro­minent media organisations such as Newsweek, ABC TV, and The Tele­graph, among others, and currently works as a freelance Journalist. He had been trying to secure a meeting with Imran Khan.

Sources told the paper that Mr. Glass, who was recently spotted outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi alongside Mr. Khan’s sister Aleema, was at the residence of Islamabad-based senior journalist Zahid Hussain when they were visited by a large police contingent.

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Around noon on July 31, a team led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) arrived, initially saying they wanted to meet the foreign Journalist.

They then informed Mr. Glass that his visa had been cancelled, After arguing for nearly an hour, the ASP reportedly told the journalist he had to leave the country by 5 p.m.

“Mr Glass wondered how he would secure a flight and said his luggage is still at [his lodgings]. The ASP offered to accompany him to the hotel to collect his luggage and informed him that there was a flight to Abu Dhabi available at 4 p.m., which he should take to leave the country. The ASP said he had a clear order to deport the journalist,” the paper quoted sources as saying.

Sources said that Mr. Glass was initially taken to his lodgings to collect his luggage, and then deported to the Middle East.

Shahzad Akbar, a former aide of ex-PM Imran Khan, also mentioned the incident on social media. “There are reports of the deportation of British journalist Charles Glass who was visiting Pakistan to see @ImranKhanPTI at Adiala prison,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Sources said that Glass had been trying to secure an interview with Mr. Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), and it was possible that his tourist visa was cancelled because of this.

However, Kohsar police station Chief Shafqat Faiz, in whose locality the Journalist was staying, denied any such activity within their jurisdiction. The Dawn newspaper also reached out to Islamabad police Chief Ali Nasir Rizvi for comment on the issue, but he did not respond.

His deportation has raised concerns about freedom of the press and access to information in Pakistan.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that he is ready to hold talks but not to strike a “deal” with anyone who has stolen his party’s mandate in the February 8 general election.

Talking to journalists at the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on May 3, the 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf founder asserted that negotiations were held only with adversaries and therefore the talks should be held with those who were the biggest opponents ofPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)at present, apparently a reference to the military establishment, the Dawn newspaper reported on May 4.

Underlining that he had been saying for 18 months that he was ready to hold negotiations but not to strike a deal, Mr. Khan reiterated that his party would hold talks with everyone but the three parties, the Geo News reported.

“Someone who wants to leave the country or avoid imprisonment makes a deal,” he said, in an apparent reference to The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif.

Mr. Khan named Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz for holding negotiations.

“I have proposed these three names for talks and not for a deal,” he said.

The February 8 general elections delivered a fractured mandate. Independent candidates, a majority of them backed by Mr. Khan’s PTI, won 93 seats in the 336-member National Assembly. Former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 75 seats while the Bilawal Zardari Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) won 17 seats.

Mr. Khan’s PTI party has maintained that the powerful establishment had favoured Sharif’s PML-N and that the Election Commission of Pakistan deliberately used a different form to declare the results to “steal the mandate” that belonged to it.

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The PML-N struck a post-poll deal with Mr. Bhutto’s PPP and four smaller parties and formed the government in March.

Mr. Khan reiterated that he was “always ready for talks, but it could only take place when their stolen mandate was returned and innocent imprisoned workers were released,” the Dawn newspaper quoted PTI’s media department as saying on May 3.

Without naming anyone, Mr. Khan told reporters that “they” were going to lodge the fourth case against him concerning the Toshakhana gifts. They should make whatever the cases they wanted all at once, he added.

Mr. Khan’s statement came a day after PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan claimed that his party was neither holding dialogues with anyone nor had any special message for talks.

Mr. Gohar, speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, said that the former premier was facing “politically motivated” cases. He added that the PTI founder requested the judiciary to give judgements on his cases at the earliest, the Geo News reported.

“Ali Amin Gandapur, Omar Ayub Khan and Shibli Faraz have been given the go-ahead to hold talks, but not to strike a deal,” Mr. Gohar said, adding that they were to talk to anyone except three political parties.