In an important step, Richard Grenell, the US special envoy nominated by US President-elect Donald Trump, publicly supported the release of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan from prison, claiming that the current regime had created false allegations against him.
“I would like to see Imran Khan released from prison. He is currently in prison, facing many of the same allegations that President Trump is facing, where the ruling party put him in prison and created some kind of corruption and false allegations, and he is in prison.” “Prison now,” Grenell was quoted as saying by Ani news agency.
Grenell also compared the corruption charges facing Khan to those surrounding Trump, adding that both men were victims of “politically motivated allegations.”
The US diplomat’s comments came during an interview with US news outlet Newsmax on Wednesday, where he discussed US-Pakistan relations under the Trump administration.
Khan, who is also the founder and president of the main opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is currently detained on corruption charges in a Pakistani prison.
Trump envoy Grenell praises Imran Khan
Grenell also praised Khan for improving relations between the two countries, noting that the relationship flourished when the PTI chief was in power. It highlighted Khan’s background as a former cricket captain and an outsider to conventional politics, bringing him in line with Trump’s foreign political posture.
“We had a much better relationship with Pakistan during the Trump administration when a man called Imran Khan was the leader of Pakistan. That’s because Imran Khan was an outsider. He was a former cricketer and actually the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. He was not a politician, he was a talker,” Grenell said. “In very logical language, and he had a very good relationship with Donald Trump.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Grenell, in response to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller’s post in X, called for the PTI founder to be released.
The State Department spokesman also criticized, saying that US concern about “sentencing Pakistani civilians in a military court” was too late and that efforts were “too little and too weak.”
“You’re late. This is too little and too weak. Speak normally. Release Imran Khan,” Grenell said on Channel X in response to Miller’s post.
