Epstein Files Reveal Early Western Interest in Imran Khan’s Social and Political Influence

Long before he became Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan’s social and political influence on the international stage was being actively discussed, according to newly released documents from the so-called “Epstein files.”

Pakistan’s The News reported that confidential emails included in the latest release of Epstein-related documents reveal a 2013 diplomatic effort to leverage Khan’s influence for Western-backed initiatives in Pakistan. The emails date back several years before Khan assumed the office of prime minister.

One email, written in June 2013, described Khan as a “London society lion,” portraying him as a prominent and influential figure within elite social circles in the United Kingdom. The email was sent by Nasra Hassan, a former United Nations official, to Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, who was then president of the International Peace Institute.

The correspondence discussed how Western-supported health initiatives—particularly vaccination programs—could expand their influence in Pakistan by engaging Imran Khan rather than the country’s newly elected prime minister at the time, Nawaz Sharif.

The documents were released last Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a broader investigation into the financial and professional networks of Jeffrey Epstein.

In 2013, Imran Khan was the founder and leader of the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a former World Cup–winning international cricket star. Although he held no government office at the time, he was widely known in Western countries for his social connections and international profile.

According to Hassan’s assessment in the email, these connections made Khan a potentially more effective intermediary on sensitive diplomatic issues—particularly polio eradication—than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Hassan suggested that a similar approach had been considered for Pakistan, involving Khan rather than the sitting prime minister.

At the time, PTI had formed the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a region where polio remained widespread and vaccination efforts faced significant resistance.

The email was written shortly after discussions involving Bill Gates—referred to in the correspondence as “BG”—and notes indicate that Afghanistan’s then president Hamid Karzai was also part of related conversations.

Under a law passed by the U.S. Congress in November 2025, federal authorities were instructed to release all remaining documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. As part of that mandate, the final batch of Epstein-related records was recently made public, comprising approximately three million pages of documents, 2,000 videos, and around 180,000 photographs.