By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: Imran Khan’s three sisters were again denied entry to Adiala Jail on Tuesday for what has become a routine but increasingly futile weekly visit, the latest flashpoint in the Pakistani government’s standoff with the jailed founder of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Aleema Khan, Noreen Khan and Uzma Khan arrived at the high-security facility outside Rawalpindi as they have on previous designated meeting days, only to be informed by law enforcement officials that they would not be allowed to proceed. Party leaders gathered outside the jail walls expressed mounting frustration, with Khan’s sisters publicly appealing for large crowds to assemble at the prison gates to force the government’s hand.
Aleema Khan, speaking to reporters outside the facility, said she still hoped supporters would turn out in force but sounded weary as the visiting window closed without resolution. “It is unfortunate that the courts are not delivering justice,” she said. Noreen Khan was more pointed. “They believe they are not answerable to anyone,” she told journalists. “Imran Khan is the identity of Pakistan and he will stay in the country. However, they will not stay in Pakistan.” Uzma Khan called for intensified pressure. “Khan sahib had said that parliamentarians should come out and reach Adiala jail,” she said. “It will make news if they are arrested.” She added that her brother remains in solitary confinement and urged party leaders who have gone underground to emerge from their homes. “More pressure is needed to secure a meeting with Imran,” she said.
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who was present along with former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Junaid Akbar — now president of the party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter — and other senior figures, sought to project unity. “There is no single leader in the PTI,” Raja told reporters. “We are all workers and we come here to the jail.” He added that he had no differences with Aleema Khan and that Imran Khan had already assigned responsibilities to all party leaders.
Separately, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram issued a sharply worded statement accusing the government of “persistent and total disregard” for court orders. Despite repeated judicial directives permitting twice-weekly meetings between Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, family members, lawyers and political leaders, those instructions have been repeatedly ignored, he said.
The party also reacted strongly to the latest annual report from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, framing it as a damning indictment of the current administration. In a statement, the PTI called the document “a charge sheet highlighting the deteriorating state of human rights in the country” and “expos[ing] the incompetence, authoritarian governance, and violations of the Constitution by the current ‘Form-47’ government.”
The report, the party said, documents severe pressure on freedom of expression, the harassment of journalists, unofficial restrictions on media houses and the suppression of dissenting voices through force. It further highlights enforced disappearances, extrajudicial actions and the unchecked powers of law enforcement agencies, warning that the rule of law has been dangerously weakened. Political activists, particularly PTI leaders and workers, face fabricated cases, illegal detentions and “inhumane methods such as solitary confinement,” the statement said. Such conditions, it added, threaten not only democracy but the credibility of state institutions.
In a parallel development Tuesday, Raja defended his decision to appoint a new five-member Punjab Coordination and Monitoring Committee, insisting that no existing members would be removed and no additional names added despite internal criticism. The committee, announced on Monday under the convenership of Amjad Khan Niazi, is tasked with coordinating organizational matters across Punjab’s four regions by engaging directly with the presidents and general secretaries of those areas. Its other members are Naeem Haider Panjotha, Shaukat Mahmood Basra, Ali Ijaz Buttar and Mehr Abdul Sattar. The body’s detailed terms of reference include planning and preparing for elections at all levels, monitoring the completion of party organizations, coordinating the activities of affiliated wings, advising regional leaders on organizational effectiveness, proposing and overseeing political events, and tracking prisoners’ welfare while arranging legal support. The committee is required to submit weekly activity reports to the secretary general.
The choice of Niazi as convener has drawn fire from some PTI members and workers because he distanced himself from the party in the aftermath of the May 9 protests. Speaking to local media, Raja pushed back firmly. “I know that some leaders have been criticizing Niazi that he left the party, but they should not forget that Imran Khan himself had accepted his excuse and made him his political coordinator,” he said. With roughly 80 percent of the party’s Punjab leadership either jailed or underground, Raja argued, Niazi was the best available option to sustain the political struggle in the province.
He rejected reports of intense pressure to alter the committee’s composition. “There were so many candidates to become members of the committee, but after failing to secure a slot, they have been criticizing it,” he said. Raja noted that Niazi had met Imran Khan and explained that he had quit under duress; Khan subsequently appointed him political coordinator. He praised the other members: Basra as a “seasoned worker” and the party’s deputy general secretary; Sattar as “a symbol of struggle” who spent five years in jail for his opposition to the Okara Military Farms; and Panjotha, included to carry out Khan’s directive to encourage youth involvement. Panjotha, Raja added, “never skips meetings and regularly visits Adiala jail.”
Basra, speaking after the announcement, disclosed that he faces 60 first information reports and multiple court cases. “We will take all possible steps to make the party stronger and more active so that Imran Khan is released,” he said. One PTI leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the committee’s formation had become a subject of open debate inside the party. “While there are a number of leaders who have been opposing the decision, there are also leaders who have been supporting it,” the official said.
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