Islamabad, April 14 (IANS) Sisters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan were once again denied a meeting with their brother at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Tuesday, local media reported.
The authorities did not allow Imran Khan’s sisters to enter the jail, following which they returned to the checkpost where they are usually stopped by police, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported.
“Usually, police do not allow us to proceed onward and the jail administration informs the court that we did not arrive because of which the meeting could not be arranged. This time we reached outside the gate of Adiala jail and informed them that we are here,” said Khan’s sister Aleema.
She stated that they made sure that their faces were recorded in the CCTV footage so that the jail authorities will not be able to deny their presence.
When asked how they were able to reach the jail’s main gate, they refused to reveal it, saying that it would then become difficult to do the same again, Dawn reported.
“We could have stayed there but police officials asked us to leave because their jobs would be in danger otherwise.” Aleema Khan mentioned that 51 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers were arrested during a protest outside the jail last week and efforts were being made to secure their release.
The Islamabad High Court has allowed Imran Khan’s family, lawyers and associates to meet him twice a week. However, the former PM has largely been restricted from meeting them for past several months.
Last month, Khan’s son, Kasim, termed his father’s detention “arbitrary” and raised serious concerns over the Pakistani authorities’ treatment which he said breaches international human rights conventions.
During the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, Kasim Khan said that Imran Khan’s case was not an “isolated incident” but it was the “most visible example” of a much wider pattern of repression in Pakistan since 2022. He spoke about the detention of political prisoners, trial and conviction of civilians by military courts and journalists being “silenced, abducted or driven into exile,” Dawn reported.
Kasim Khan, who said that his father was being held in solitary confinement, also spoke about the general elections held in Pakistan in February 2024, reiterating PTI’s allegations that polls were rigged. He said that Pakistan had made commitments under the GSP-plus framework to uphold international human rights conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention against Torture.
He said that Imran Khan is not allowed to meet his family and being denied medical care. He also highlighted that the trial of civilians in military courts violated treaty obligations, Dawn reported.
“My brother and I are not political people. We never wanted to come before bodies like this. [But] my father’s life demands that we take action. We cannot stand by as his health deteriorates and he is kept away from us. If the situation were reversed, we know he would not stop fighting until we were free. That is the very least we can do for him,” he added.
–IANS
akl/as