By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The sister of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan rejected social media reports over the weekend that a former army chief had visited him at Adiala jail, calling the claims fabricated and charging that they were deliberately seeded to draw public attention away from what she described as the systematic denial of her brother’s legal rights.
“All the news circulating on social media that a former army chief met Imran Khan in Adiala jail is fake,” Aleema Khan wrote on Monday on X, adding that she had verified the matter directly with PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who she said confirmed the reports were “totally fake.”
The denial arrived after a weekend of speculation across Pakistani social media platforms about an alleged high-level meeting at the Rawalpindi prison where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder has been held since August 2023. Neither the identity of the purported visitor nor the sourcing behind the claims was established in the circulating reports, and the PTI offered no elaboration on where the story originated.
Aleema Khan, however, was pointed about its purpose. The disinformation, she wrote, was “especially spread to distract from the fact that Imran is being tortured through total isolation” — a condition she said has persisted for six months and encompasses the denial of books, television access and virtually all contact with the outside world.
“He has not been allowed contact with anyone from the outside world in the past six months, except two visits by his lawyer on the orders of the court,” she said.
That claim stands in stark contrast to a standing order from a full bench of the court, which Aleema Khan said explicitly entitles the former prime minister to visits from at least 18 people per week — six family members and six lawyers on Tuesdays, and six party members on Thursdays. Those meetings, she said, have remained largely suspended.
Beyond the isolation, Aleema Khan listed a series of grievances she characterized as violations of both Pakistani and international law: that Khan has not received adequate treatment for an eye condition, that he has been denied reading material for half a year, and that his two sons — Kasim and Suleiman, who live in London with Imran’s former wife — have been barred from speaking with him by telephone. The family has also accused the government of deliberately stalling the issuance of the sons’ travel visas.
Khan, 72, has been convicted in multiple cases since his ouster from power in April 2022. He received a 14-year sentence in a £190 million corruption matter and a separate 17-year term in the Toshakhana-2 case, which centered on the alleged undisclosed sale of state gifts.
His medical situation drew particular scrutiny earlier this year. Khan underwent a procedure at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad on the night of January 24, a development the government confirmed only days afterward amid what his family described as a deliberate effort to keep them uninformed. He has since been receiving follow-up treatment at the same facility.
Outside the prison walls, the PTI has maintained a drumbeat of protest. Party supporters have staged regular sit-ins outside Adiala on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the court-designated visiting days, as a public rebuke of the access restrictions.
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