ISLAMABAD: The Punjab provincial administration on Tuesday imposed a two-week blanket ban on visits and meetings at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, due to security concerns, prompting condemnation from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party that said its incarcerated leader and former prime minister Imran Khan should be exempt from the restriction.
The development comes just days after the government announced it had foiled a militant attack on the prison by arresting three individuals with heavy weaponry who were taken to an undisclosed location.
A senior police official, quoted in the statement, mentioned that, along with automatic assault weapons, hand grenades and improvised explosive devices, the militants also possessed maps of the jail.
“On the basis of the threat alerts shared by the different intelligence and security agencies of the country, the Internal Security Wing of the Home Department Punjab has conveyed that there exist different types of threats to security of Adiala jail as some anti state terrorist groups supported by the enemies of Pakistan have planned to conduct targeted attacks thereof,” said the Punjab Home Department in a letter to the Inspector General of Prisons in the province.
“As a security measure against the aforementioned attacks,” the letter written by the section officer added, “I have been conveyed to request you to stop the public visits/ meetings/ interviews within the Adiala Jail immediately for two weeks.”
Reacting to the development, the top PTI leaders conducted a news conference, describing the development as an attempt to isolate Khan by keeping the media and his party colleagues away from him.
“This needs to be investigated and we should get access by all means to meet with him tomorrow,” Barrister Gohar Khan, the new PTI chairman, told the journalists. “Imran Khan is not an ordinary prisoner. Therefore, he should be exempt from such a blanket ban on meetings with him.”
Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan said the government was violating court orders that specifically mentioned that Khan could meet his family, lawyers and party leaders.
He specifically blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for deliberately imposing the restriction.
Khan has been behind bars since his conviction in a graft case in August last year, and since then, he has been subjected to prison trials on various charges at Adiala Jail, being found guilty of divulging state secrets and engaging in an illicit marriage.