Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s health has become the latest flashpoint surrounding his more than three years in prison. After months of concerns over his health and repeated disputes over access to medical care, Pakistan’s Supreme Court finally ordered on August 18 that Khan be taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.
The circumstances surrounding his medical care remain fluid. But the larger issue is not. Khan remains imprisoned amid a broader erosion of civilian and democratic institutions and the extraordinary political power exercised by Pakistan’s military establishment.
There is a larger reason Americans, particularly American faith leaders, should pay attention.
In a country where the political and basic rights of the majority cannot be protected, what confidence can vulnerable religious minorities have that their rights will be protected?
Pakistan’s Christians, Hindus, and other religious minorities have long faced discrimination, persecution, and violence. Their future is tied to the strength of the same institutions, due process, representative government, freedom of conscience, and independent institutions whose erosion now affects Pakistan’s broader population.
Khan’s case brings these questions into sharp focus.
Khan came to power in 2018. By 2022, his relationship with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment had collapsed. He was subsequently ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote and entered an escalating confrontation with the country’s entrenched power structure. What followed was an extraordinary crackdown, with Khan eventually facing more than 100 criminal cases.
In 2024, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Khan’s detention was arbitrary and described his legal troubles as part of a “much larger campaign of repression” against Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Concern has also extended to Khan’s wife, Bushra Imran Khan, who remains imprisoned and has faced reported health complications and restrictions on access to family and legal counsel. United Nations human rights experts have separately raised concerns about her detention conditions and health.
Yet imprisonment has not erased Khan’s political support. Major polling before Pakistan’s 2024 election showed Khan leading among the country’s political figures in approval ratings. After PTI lost its election symbol and its candidates were forced to contest as independents, Khan-backed candidates nevertheless won the largest number of directly elected seats in the National Assembly.
For millions of Pakistanis at home and across the global diaspora, Khan has come to represent something larger than a political party or even one leader: the hope that their vote should determine who governs them. To many of his supporters, he has become a symbol of resistance to an entrenched political order and a beacon for representative democracy.
That is why what happens to Khan matters beyond Pakistan’s internal politics. When millions believe their democratic voice is being disregarded, they also watch who abroad is willing to defend their right to have that voice heard.
Whatever one thinks of Khan and his record in government, it deserves scrutiny like that of any political leader; the issue is bigger than one politician.
On Aug. 11, a bipartisan group of members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio raising concerns about the detention conditions of Khan and Bushra Imran Khan. The signatories crossed America’s ideological divide, including both Republicans and Democrats.
That matters. Due process and human dignity should not belong exclusively to the American Left or Right, nor should they depend upon the religion of the person whose rights are threatened.
American faith leaders are particularly well-positioned to demonstrate that principle. For decades, American Christians, including influential evangelical voices, have advocated for persecuted Christians, prisoners of conscience, and religious minorities around the world.
Imagine the message sent to more than 250 million people in a Muslim-majority country if prominent American Christian leaders stood publicly for the basic rights of a Muslim political leader, not because they share Khan’s religion or endorse his politics, but because they believe those rights belong to everyone.
Millions of young Pakistanis are watching this political crisis. A generation that sees Christians abroad standing for the rights of Muslims may be more willing to consider its own responsibility toward Christians, Hindus, and other minorities at home. No statement can guarantee such a change, but moments of solidarity across religious boundaries can help shape generational attitudes.
None of this requires American faith leaders to endorse Khan, his party, or his record in government. It asks them to defend the basic rights of someone who does not share their faith and, in doing so, strengthen the principle that protects religious minorities everywhere.
Members of Congress from both parties have spoken. United Nations experts have spoken. Millions of Pakistanis have expressed their political preference despite extraordinary restrictions.
IN WAR ON BIBLE, PASTOR CONVICTED FOR PREACHING GOSPEL
American religious leaders should speak as well.
Not simply for Imran Khan, and not only for Pakistan’s Christians but for the principle that protects them both.
Junaid Khan is a cybersecurity professional and community advocate who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates, District 27, in 2025.