Authorities bar Imran Khan from holding meetings in Adiala jail

RAWALPINDI: Punjab Home Ministry has imposed a two-week ban on incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan from holding meetings inside Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, Geo News reported on Tuesday.

According to a notification issued by Home Department, all kinds of visits, meetings and interviews have been restricted in Adiala Jail due to security alert. 

The authorities have been directed to install barbed wires outside the jail premises and a hold a fresh security audit of the officials of the special branch of the police, Intelligence Bureau and the jail staff within a single day.

No person would be exempted from body search before entering the jail premises and a clearance operation would be carried out in and around the jail, the notification stated.

Security clearance of government contractors working inside jails has also been sought.

‘PTI founder’s life is in danger’

Expressing severe concerns over the abrupt ban on Khan’s meeting in Adiala jail, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan feared that the former prime minister’s life was in danger.

Addressing a press conference outside the jail, Gohar said that they were barred from meeting the incarcerated PTI founder. He said that the authorities did not inform anybody about the two-week ban on Khan’s meeting.

The authorities gave “terrorism” as a reason for the move, he added.

Gohar demanded immediate meeting and consultations with the incarcerated PTI founder. He also sought the details about Khan’s health.

Khan, who's serving a total of 31 years sentence in multiple cases, had been holding meetings with his lawyers, family and party leaders since being moved to the Rawalpindi facility in September 2023, on two days, Mondays and Thursdays — allocated for such engagements.

In January, the former prime minister — along with Shah Mahmood Qureshi — was sentenced to 10 years in the cipher case for publishing 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 awarded to Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, by an accountability court in the Toshakhana reference for misusing his 2018 to 2022 premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than Rs140 million ($635,000).

The court also handed down a fine of Rs1.57 billion — Rs787 million each — to the couple.

Subsequently, Khan and Bushra were also sentenced to another seven years, along with a Rs500,000 penalty each, in in the "un-Islamic nikah" case for marrying each other before the completion of the 90-day iddat period following the latter's divorce.

Furthermore, the PTI founder along with his wife were indicted in the the £190 million case during the jail trial that was conducted in the Adiala jail as well.

Khan's party and associates in recent months have time again demanded his release from "fabricated" cases while raising concerns for the former premier's safety inside the 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 police recovered automatic weapons and ammunition from the terrorists who hailed from Afghanistan.

Before that in November, police had found a suspicious bag laden with an explosive device near Adiala Road in Gorakhpur, Rawalpindi, just one kilometre away from the facility.