Pak Muslim League leader says Imran Khan’s meetings deal flouts prison manual

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 1 (ANI): Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N), senior leader Irfan Siddiqui, has expressed astonishment over what he termed an "unprecedented agreement" between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and the Adiala Jail administration, allowing meetings of the country’s former Prime Minister with party leaders, Dawn reported.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Siddiqui criticised the agreement as "an open mockery of the law, regulations, and prison manual.""Such a written agreement between the jail administration and a convicted prisoner is unprecedented", he said.

On March 30, Imran Khan arrived at an agreement with the superintendent of Karachi’s Adialia jail on standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the former’s meetings with his relatives and lawyers, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Additionally, Khan appointed three focal persons after reaching an agreement with the Adiala Jail authorities to devise SOPs for holding meetings in the jail, according to media reports.

According to Dawn, the document regarding the SOPs for the "smooth conduct of meetings of convicted prisoner Imran Khan Niazi with his lawyers, family members, friends, and colleagues,", dated March 28, was issued in compliance with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) orders.

Two days a week, on Tuesdays, Imran’s family members can visit him in jail, while on Thursdays, his lawyers and other persons could meet with the PTI founder, according to ARY News reported on Saturday (March 30)Under the agreement, signed by the ex-prime minister as well as the jail superintendent, the PTI leader has appointed Barrister Gohar Khan, Sher Afzal Marwat and Barrister Umair Niazi as his focal persons, as per Dawn.

The focal persons will provide two names for holding meetings with the incarcerated party founder every week.

The meetings will last 30 to 45 minutes, with the maximum number of visitors in each session limited to six.

The PML-N leader said dozens of prominent political leaders, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Yusuf Raza Gillani, have been incarcerated, but there was no example of such an agreement with any of them, despite the fact that no one was convicted in cases of such serious nature as Khan.

"The Senator questioned: if, as stated, the agreement was made on high court’s orders, why can’t this right be extended to over 5,000 prisoners in Adiala Jail and 90,000 prisoners across the country?," he said.

Following the Punjab Government’s imposition of a two-week ban on prison visitors citing a "terror threat" on March 12, an agreement was reached between Khan and the Adiala Jail administration.

This agreement raised eyebrows, especially among PTI leaders, who viewed the ban as a deliberate move to prevent them from meeting their incarcerated party founder and former prime minister, Imran Khan.

PTI leader and lawyer Marwat subsequently filed a petition against the ban in the IHC, which was taken up by Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir on March 13. (ANI)