RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has been banned from holding meetings in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail for two weeks.
According to a notification issued by the Punjab Home Department, all kinds of visits, meetings and talks have been restricted in Adiala Jail due to security alert.
The notice instructed the authorities that barbed wire should be installed outside the prison premises. A new security audit of Special Branch Police, Intelligence and prison staff will be conducted in a single day.
No person would be exempted from personal search in the jail premises and a clearance operation would be conducted in and around the jail, he added.
It also called for security clearances for government contractors working in prisons.
“PTI founder’s life in danger”
PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan expressed grave concern over the sudden ban on Khan’s meeting at Adiala jail and feared that the former prime minister’s life was in danger.
Addressing a press conference outside the jail, Gohar said they were barred from meeting the jailed PTI founder. He said the authorities did not inform anyone about the two-week ban on Khan’s meeting.
Authorities cited “terrorism” as the reason for the move, he added.
Gohar demanded an immediate meeting and consultation with the jailed PTI founder. He also sought details about Khan’s health.
The development comes as Khan, who was shifted from Attock Jail to Adiala Jail in September 2023, is serving a cumulative sentence of 31 years in various cases and is engaging his lawyers, party leaders and family members during his incarceration as before. they had Mondays and Thursdays allotted for meetings.
The former prime minister along with former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were sentenced in January in the cipher case to 10 years each for publishing the contents of a secret cable sent by the country’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad. .
This was followed by another 14-year sentence handed down by the court to Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the Toshakhan reference for abusing his prime ministership from 2018 to 2022 to buy and sell state-owned gifts received during visits abroad and of value. more than Rs 140 million ($635,000).
The court also fined the couple Rs 1.57 billion – Rs 787 million each.
Subsequently, Khan and Bushra were also sentenced to another seven years, along with a fine of Rs 500,000 each, in a case of “un-Islamic nikah” for marrying before the expiry of the 90-day iddat period after the other’s divorce. .
Besides, the PTI founder along with his wife were accused in the 190 million pound case during the jail trial which also took place in Adiala Jail.
In recent months, Khan’s party and associates have again demanded his release from the “concocted” cases, while raising concerns about the former prime minister’s safety in prison.
Last week, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have arrested three terrorists and recovered a map of Adiala Jail, a hand grenade and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from their possession.
Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Khalid Hamdani said the police recovered automatic weapons and ammunition from the terrorists who were from Afghanistan.
Earlier in November, police found a suspected bag loaded with an explosive device near Adiala Road in Gorakhpur, Rawalpindi, just one kilometer from the device.
