UK court charges Pakistani politician with child sex offences

A senior Pakistani politician, Muhammad Khurram Khan, has gone on trial in the United Kingdom (UK) after being charged with child sex offences. 

Khurram, who himself hails from a political family in Manshra, Abbottabad, had gone UK earlier this year to attend his son’s law graduation ceremony but allegedly got caught by the detectives over child sex allegations.

The prosecutor at the Kingston Crown Court said Khurrum, 60, was charged with allegations of “attempted sexual communications with a child” and “arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence”.

Khurram is in the UK on a visiting visa and appeared before the court via video link at the King Crown Court from his cell in Wandsworth Prison. He was arrested earlier this year and has not been bailed yet.

However, the Pakistani politician denied the charges of sex offences, while one of his close friends said that he was an innocent man.

According to UK authorities, Khurram thought he was talking to a girl, aged under 17, but in reality, there was a police detective on the other end of the social media application.

Khurram was a first cousin and brother-in-law of Shahzada Gustasap Khan, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker who won elections in 2024 against Nawaz Sharif.

His, father Mohammad Hanif Khan, was an MNA in two different governments of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and served as a deputy speaker and federal minister as well.

Khurram is a law graduate but is not a practising lawyer.