Adiala | Pakistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was prevented for the ninth time by prison authorities from meeting PTI founder Imran Khan at Adiala Jail on Thursday. Imran’s sister Uzma Khan met the party founder in prison on Tuesday after weeks of effort, with CM Afridi and other party leaders scheduled to meet him today. The meeting took place as rumours regarding Imran’s health began circulating in local and foreign media, despite claims by the government and PTI leaders that the former prime minister was in good health. These speculations, however, gained traction due to the government’s reluctance to let visitors, including his family members and legal team, meet Imran over the past few weeks. According to a post on X by the PTI, CM Afridi went to Adiala jail to visit Imran, but access was not granted. Afridi addressed the media outside the prison after the continued lack of access. He said he would update the media on the immediate course of action — whether he would stage a sit-in or not. The PTI also...

Aleema Khan, the sister of PTI founder Imran Khan, has filed a contempt of court petition against the Adiala jail superintendent and others over their failure to comply with an earlier Islamabad High Court (IHC) order that reinstated a twice-a-week meeting schedule for the incarcerated former premier. The petition was filed after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, along with several other PTI members, staged an overnight sit-in outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, where Imran has been imprisoned since 2023. The sit-in was staged as CM Afridi was denied a meeting with Imran for the eighth time on Thursday. Previously, Imran’s sisters, including Aleema, had also staged sit-ins outside the prison in Rawalpindi on multiple occasions after they were barred from meeting the former premier. The PTI ended its latest sit-in on Friday morning, with the KP CM announcing that they would be approaching the IHC, where Aleema has now filed a contempt plea. View this post on Instagram Apart from Adiala Jail Super...

The PTI said late on Tuesday that police manhandled and “violently detained” the sisters of ex-premier Imran Khan from outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, where they were camped out after being denied a weekly meeting with the party founder. The PTI had held a protest outside the jail on Tuesday, where Imran is currently incarcerated, but the jail administration did not allow party leaders and the PTI founder’s family to meet him. Subsequently, the party held a sit-in outside the jail and criticised the prison administration for violating the court order in this regard. In a post on social media platform X after midnight, the party said Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Dr Uzma Khan were “sitting peacefully” outside the jail when the police action happened. It added that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Minister Meena Khan Afridi, MNA Shahid Khattak and other party workers, including several women, were “subjected to violence and picked up by police”. “What should be routine weekly court-mandated family visits,...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was on Thursday denied a meeting with incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan for the fourth time since assuming office. The denial comes despite the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week directing the Adiala jail superintendent to implement a March 24 order that reinstated the twice-a-week meeting schedule for the former prime minister. Afridi has termed consultation with Imran as crucial in order to announce his new provincial cabinet after he was elected as the chief minister earlier this month. Speaking to reporters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, Afridi said he was yet again prevented by the police from meeting Imran. He was flanked by PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who was approved by the IHC as the designated person to provide the jail officials with the list of individuals named to meet Imran. Afridi highlighted the various legal steps he had taken in order to secure his meeting with Imran, including letters written to the Punjab Home Department a...

The Islamabad High Court on Thursday directed the Adiala jail superintendent to implement a March 24 order that reinstated the twice-a-week meeting schedule for former prime minister Imran Khan. The directive came as a larger bench, led by Justice Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and including Justices Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Muhammad Azam Khan, collectively took up all 11 petitions filed by PTI leaders regarding Imran’s jail visitation. The ex-premier’s family and party have repeatedly accused prison authorities of “sabotaging” meetings with him. Today, the IHC directed Adiala jail’s Superintendent Abdul Ghafoor Anjum, who was present during the hearing, to allow Imran’s jail meetings, as per the earlier order, while abiding by standard operating procedures (SOPs). It directed the jail official to facilitate the meetings as per the lists provided by PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who also attended the proceedings. Raja and Anjum traded barbs during the hearing as the PTI leader claimed that “not even once” ...

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday removed the registrar’s objections on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s plea seeking a meeting with incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan and issued notices to the Adiala jail superintendent and others for October 23. Afridi had filed the plea on Oct 17, two days after he was sworn in as the provincial chief executive on Oct 15. He had gone to Adiala jail — where Imran has been imprisoned since September 2023 — after getting protective bail from the Peshawar High Court on Oct 16. However, he was denied the meeting; Afridi has stated that he would announce his cabinet after consulting Imran. He had then filed a plea with the IHC, however, the registrar’s office had objected to the maintainability of the plea. Today, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir took up the matter and overruled the objections of the registrar office. Afridi’s lawyer Advocate Ali Bukhari said that the registrar’s office had raised the objection that the petition was filed “without the provin...