Irfan Siddiqui, senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, has expressed surprise at what he described as a “unprecedented agreement” between PTI founder Imran Khan and the Adiala Jail administration to permit his meetings with party leaders.
Mr. Siddiqui referred to the deal as “an open mockery of the law, regulations, and prison manual” in a statement released on Sunday.
He continued, “It is unprecedented that the jail administration and a convicted prisoner would enter into such a written agreement.”
Media sources state that Mr. Khan met with the Adiala Jail administration on Saturday and assigned three focus persons to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for having meetings there.
says that no other imprisoned politician had the same privileges.
In accordance with directives from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), a paper dated March 28 that outlined the SOPs for the “smooth conduct of meetings of convicted prisoner Imran Khan Niazi with his lawyers, family members, friends/colleagues” was released.
The PTI leader has designated Barrister Gohar Khan, Sher Afzal Marwat, and Barrister Umair Niazi as his focal persons in accordance with the agreement, which was signed by the jail superintendent and the former prime minister.
Two names will be provided by the focus persons so that weekly meetings with the imprisoned party founder can take place. The PTI leader will be permitted to meet with his attorneys and family on Tuesdays and Thursdays, according the arrangement.
The meetings will run between thirty to forty-five minutes, and each session may include a maximum of six guests.
The leader of the PML-N claimed that although many well-known political figures have been imprisoned, such as Yusuf Raza Gillani, Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, there has never been an instance of an agreement of this kind with any of them, even though no one has been found guilty in cases as serious as Mr. Khan’s.
The senator questioned why this entitlement couldn’t be extended to the more than 5,000 inmates at Adiala Jail and the 90,000 inmates nationwide if, as claimed, the agreement was reached on the orders of a high court.
Days after the Punjab Government on March 12 issued a two-week restriction on visitors inside the prison, claiming intelligence information about a “terror threat,” Mr. Khan and the Adiala Jail management reached an accord.
PTI leaders, who saw the decision as a calculated attempt to prevent them from meeting party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, who is presently detained at the institution, denounced it.
PTI politician and attorney Mr. Marwat also filed a plea at the IHC challenging the government’s order, which Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir heard on March 13.
