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.
Ex-PM Khan’s party cries foul as Punjab government enforces jail visit ban
https://arab.news/2e69m
Ex-PM Khan’s party cries foul as Punjab government enforces jail visit ban
- Punjab Home Department says it received threat alerts from security agencies about possible attack on Adiala jail
- PTI says the government trying to further isolate jailed Imran Khan by keeping him away from media and party leaders
Pakistan opposition to continue protest over ex-PM Khan’s health amid conflicting reports
- Pakistan’s government insists that the ex-premier’s eye condition has improved
- Khan’s personal doctor says briefed on his condition but cannot confirm veracity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition alliance on Monday vowed to continue their protest sit-in at parliament and demanded “clarity” over the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, following conflicting medical reports about his eye condition.
The 73-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since 2023. Concerns arose about his health last week when a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, was asked to visit Khan at the jail to assess his living conditions. Safdar reported that Khan had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with just 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
On Sunday, a team of doctors from various hospitals visited the prison to examine Khan’s eye condition, according to the Adiala jail superintendent, who later submitted his report in the court. On Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that based on reports from the prison authorities and the amicus curiae, Khan’s “living conditions in jail do not presently exhibit any perverse aspects.” It noted that Khan had “generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement” and had not sought facilities beyond the existing level of care.
Having carefully perused both reports in detail, the bench observed that their general contents and the overall picture emerging therefrom are largely consistent. The opposition alliance, which continued to stage its sit-in for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, held a meeting at the parliament building on Monday evening to deliberate on the emerging situation and discuss their future course of action.
“The sit-in will continue till there is clarity on the matter of [Khan's] health,” Sher Ali Arbab, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who has been participating in the sit-in, told Arab News, adding that PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Nasir Abbas had briefed them about their meeting with doctors who had visited Khan on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Gohar said the doctors had informed them that Khan’s condition had improved.
“They said, 'There has been a significant and satisfactory improvement.' With that satisfactory improvement, we also felt satisfied,” he said, noting that the macular thickness in Khan’s eye had reportedly dropped from 550 to 300 microns, a sign of subsiding swelling.
Gohar said the party did not want to politicize Khan’s health.
“We are not doctors, nor is this our field,” he said, noting that Khan’s personal physician in Lahore, Dr. Aasim Yusuf, and his eye specialist Dr. Khurram Mirza had also sought input from the Islamabad-based medical team.
“Our doctors also expressed satisfaction over the report.”
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Despite Gohar’s cautious optimism, Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Yusuf, issued a video message on Monday, saying he could neither “confirm nor deny the veracity” of the government’s claims.
“Because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care... I’m unable to confirm what we have been told,” Yusuf said.
He appealed to authorities to grant him or fellow physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, immediate access to Khan, arguing that the ex-premier should be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for specialist care.
Speaking to Arab News, PTI’s central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s sister and their cousin, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, will speak to media on Tuesday to express their views about the situation.
The government insists that Khan’s condition has improved.
“His eye [condition] has improved and is better than before,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry told the media in a brief interaction on Monday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan is involved, and doctors are involved. What medicine he receives, whether he needs to be hospitalized or sent home, these decisions are made by doctors. Neither lawyers nor any political party will decide this.”
