By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, the jailed former prime minister, was barred from meeting his family and lawyers at Adiala jail on Tuesday, a day after his counsel was allowed to see him for the first time in seven months.
Tuesday is one of two days a week set aside by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for Khan to receive visitors, with Thursday reserved for others. But the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been largely cut off from relatives and party leaders in recent months, despite repeated court directions.
Advocate Awais Younas Chaudhry, who submits the lists of approved visitors to the jail administration, said Khan’s nephew Abdullah Khan, the son of his sister Uzma Khanum, arrived at the prison to see him but was refused permission. Chaudhry, who was himself on the list, said lawyers including PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and secretary general Salman Akram Raja also reached the jail and were turned away.
The refusals followed Monday’s 40-minute meeting between Barrister Salman Safdar, Khan’s lawyer, and the former prime minister and his wife, Bushra Bibi, who is also held at Adiala. Safdar said the visit, arranged by jail authorities at 4.30pm after repeated applications, was his first with Khan in seven months and with Bibi in 11. He said both briefed him on their health and conditions in prison and gave fresh instructions on their legal cases, but that the time allowed was too short to cover everything pending.
On 2 September, the IHC directed the jail authorities to ensure “meaningful human interaction”, family access, exercise, reading material and other facilities for the couple. Mr Khan has been in prison since August 2023, facing a series of corruption and terrorism-related cases, after being ousted from office in April 2022.
Speaking to reporters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, Gohar welcomed Monday’s meeting as a positive development, but said it was long overdue. He argued that the political situation might have taken a different course had such visits been permitted, and that tensions could have been eased before the federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
“Even an ordinary prisoner has the right to meet family members,” he said, adding that visits by lawyers, relatives, doctors and children, as well as the family of Bibi, were a legal right that should be honoured in line with court orders. He cited a Supreme Court order of 18 August and said that implementing it could have averted further intervention by the apex court and the contempt proceedings that followed.
The PTI chairman said the party had tried repeatedly to arrange access for himself and for Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, the opposition leader in the Senate. When those efforts failed, it pressed for Mr Safdar to be admitted instead, he said.
Gohar also used the press conference to deny a television report that Khan had welcomed the removal of his party’s provincial government. “This is wrong. Khan did not say anything of the sort,” he said, calling the report “entirely false”. He said Safdar had told him Khan was already aware of the measures, and that the two had not talked much about politics. Safdar, he added, brought no political message out of the jail.
He said all PTI members of the provincial assembly remained loyal to Khan and rejected talk of a forward bloc. Any decision on the provincial government or a candidate for chief minister, he said, rested with the party founder alone. He likewise dismissed reports that Khan could be moved from Adiala to Islamabad or the family’s Bani Gala residence, saying no such proposal had been raised.
The federal government imposed the emergency and governor’s rule on 11 October, citing the provincial administration’s “deliberate disengagement” from the fight against terrorism. The move followed weeks of tension between Islamabad and the PTI, and failed negotiations, after the party announced a long march on the capital to demand Khan’s release. An 11-member advisory council was set up to help the governor run provincial affairs, and a separate administrative structure, including an Area Representative and Development Council, was created for 12 districts.
Rumours of dissent in the KP party have circulated in recent weeks. The PTI has insisted there is no “factionalism” or “division”, and last month said Junaid Akbar remained its KP president, with Senator Noorul Haq Qadri covering his duties in his absence. It also reaffirmed its backing for Sohail Afridi, the chief minister, whose office is non-functional under governor’s rule. In a statement a day earlier, the party warned of action against any member who breached party discipline.
Gohar also raised concerns over Khan’s health, repeating the party’s demand that he be examined and treated by a private doctor. “We have not given up on this demand. It is an order of the Supreme Court, and it should be implemented,” he said.
He criticised the continued detention of Khan’s three sisters, Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, who staged frequent sit-ins outside Adiala jail. They have been held since late September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, as the PTI prepared its march. Ms Niazi was taken to a cardiology hospital in Lahore on 28 October after complaining of heart discomfort, her lawyer said. Mr Gohar called the sisters’ imprisonment contrary to the country’s traditions and said he had raised the matter in the provincial assembly.
Separately, he said a case concerning the KP chief minister, the speaker and a lawmaker was pending before the Peshawar High Court. He welcomed the chief justice’s decision to form a larger bench but urged it to move quickly. “It is unbelievable that a minister and the speaker can disappear,” he said.
Overtures to Fazl
The PTI also signalled that it would welcome the support of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), in its campaign against the government.
Raja said no one was calling Rehman a “saviour”, but that the party would accept anyone prepared to stand against the government. “It is possible that some may walk with us for one mile, some for 10 miles, and some may go with us till the end. But why should we reject them?” he said.
“We do not depend on anyone, and we do not have expectations from anyone,” Raja added, though he stressed that the party wanted its caravan to grow.
Rehman has criticised the imposition of governor’s rule in KP and accused the Centre of reneging on commitments while he tried to mediate between the federal and provincial governments. He and senior federal ministers have traded harsh words since mid-October, after he accused Islamabad of depriving the provinces of their rights.
Asked about an alliance with the JUI-F once governor’s rule ends, Gohar said the party would consider it when the situation arose. He said Khan had made clear that Rehman had his own party and agenda, which the PTI had nothing to do with. He added that he had advised the JUI-F chief to avoid certain remarks, that the government had also responded inappropriately, and that political differences should not stand in the way of strengthening the democratic system. The PTI, he said, was continuing its efforts through the All Parties Conference.
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