‘Solitary confinement, power cuts, no TV’: Imran Khan complains to army chief in second letter

Days after confusion on the receipt of jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s letter to the army chief, the former prime minister (PM) has claimed to have written a second letter, this time complaining about the reaction to the first letter among other things.

“I wrote an open letter to you with sincere intentions for the betterment of the nation… However, the response I received was highly unserious and irresponsible [sic],” read a statement on Khan’s official X account as confusion prevailed on if the letter was ever received by the military.

The confusion was added to with an Adiala Jail official claiming that Khan never wrote any letter in the first place.

However, in the second letter, the jailed former premier went on to pen down a series of complaints to chief of army staff (COAS) General Asim Munir. “I was placed in solitary confinement under extreme conditions for 20 days… in a cell where even sunlight could not reach. For five days, my cell’s electricity was cut off, leaving me in complete darkness,” he claimed.

“My exercise equipment and television were confiscated and I was denied access to newspapers… apart from those 20 days, I was also kept in solitary for 40 hours,” he said and added that he had only been allowed to talk to his sons three times over the past six months despite a court order allowing him to contact his children regularly.

Khan also said that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had allowed him to meet his wife Bushra Bibi, but court orders were being ignored. “My wife is also being kept in solitary confinement,” he claimed.

Stressing that he was “illegally convicted” in four cases, Khan said that the judge who decided his fate was “under pressure”.

“My wife [Bushra Bibi] and Dr Yasmin Rashid, a 75-year-old cancer patient, besides hundreds of other women have been unjustly detained,” he said further.

Dubbing the recently passed Prevention Electronic Crime Act (PECA) amendments 2025 “a draconian law”, Khan claimed Pakistan’s GSP-plus status was at risk.

He also expressed concerns over internet outages. “Internet disruptions have already caused losses worth billions of dollars to our IT industry, destroying the careers of countless young people,” he lamented.

Khan also said that he spent his entire life bringing honour to Pakistan’s name on the global level. “My 55 years of public life since the 1970s and my 30 years of earnings are all open for everyone to see. My life and death are solely for Pakistan.”

While an official confirmation on receipt of the second letter is still awaited, the first letter was announced by Khan’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry while speaking to media outside Adiala Jail on Monday.