A UN panel of experts found recently that the PTI supremo's detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’.
Islamabad: Pakistan’s jailed former premier Imran Khan has claimed that he is being caged like a "terrorist” and was denied basic prisoner and human rights in a "death cell" in the high-security Adiala jail. The 71-year-old Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder made these claims in a rare interview from behind bars with British publication 'The Sunday Times', the Dawn newspaper reported.
“I am confined in a 7ft by 8ft death cell, typically reserved for terrorists to ensure they have no contact with anyone. It is solitary confinement with barely any space to move. I am under constant surveillance by the agencies, being recorded 24/7, and I am denied basic prisoner and human rights such as visitation,” he told the paper.
The interview was conducted via his lawyers, as — according to the article — he is not allowed a pencil and paper. Khan has been imprisoned at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for almost a year upon his conviction in three cases — the Toshakhana corruption case, the cipher case, and the un-Islamic marriage case -- in which his wife, Bushra Bibi, is also jailed. Khan faces over 200 cases and has been convicted in a few of them.
Responding to reports about Khan's imprisonment conditions, Information Minister Atta Tarar denied he was being held in a death row cell. “The Sharif family endured harsh conditions, but Imran Khan enjoys presidential suites at Adiala Jail, with access to a gym, kitchen, walking gallery, and luxurious meals,” he said at a press conference.
More updates# Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party kicked off a token hunger strike by setting up a camp outside the Parliament House in Islamabad on July 23. # On July 22, Pakistan police arrested PTI information secretary Rauf Hasan. This came just days after the party's international media coordinator Ahmad Waqas Janjua's arrest. # Authorities sealed the central office of PTI in Islamabad over violation of safety standards. # Imran Khan refused to undergo polygraph and voice matching test as a part of investigation launched by Lahore police in connection with the May 9 riots in 2023 # Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz claimed this week that Imran Khan's residence became a "training hub for terrorists", where petrol bombs were made and attacks on the state were planned. # A court in Pakistan extended on July 22 the remand of Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi by seven days in the newly filed Toshakhana case. |
