LAHORE / TAXILA: A CCTV camera was installed in front of the prison cell where PTI Chairman Imran Khan is being kept, leaving “no privacy while defecating and bathing”, an inspection report by a judge has revealed.
When contacted, Punjab Prisons Inspector General Mian Farooq Nazir told Dawn that jail authorities took notice of the matter after Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Shafqatullah Khan submitted the report based on his visit to the prison on Aug 15.
He said Imran Khan was shifted to a new cell on Saturday, where the washroom has been renovated with five-foot-high walls.
ADSJ Khan wrote in his inspection report that the cell where the ex-PM “was confined, was also visited who expressed his grave concern qua CCTV camera installed in the front of the prison bars at the distance of 5/6 feet covering bathroom-cum-latrine having small L-shaped walls two and a half or three feet high leaving no privacy while bathing or defecating”.
The camera, which also covers the toilet area, was an infringement on Mr Khan’s privacy, the judge noted.
According to the report, Mr Khan’s complaints were “completely correct” and his concern was “genuine”. Keeping a former PM and head of a political party in this situation is a clear violation of Pakistan Prison Rules 257 and 771, it said.
The judge directed the jail superintendent to redress the prisoner’s grievance.
Talking to Dawn on Monday, the IG Prisons said that facilities including bath soap, perfumes, air freshener, shampoo, fruits, tea thermos, honey, dates, air cooler, exhaust fan, towel and tissue paper have been provided to the PTI chairman.
In addition, Mr Khan has been provided with facilities allowed under the jail rules including a newspaper, bed, pillows, mattress, table and chair.
‘No easy access’
According to the inspection report, “prisoner Imran Khan further complained ‘his wife and lawyers have no easy access to him’. The superintendent has also assured that the prisoner shall be given access to his wife and lawyers as per prevailing rules”.
Moreover, the visiting judge noted that all corners i.e. barracks of women prisoners, juveniles, under-trial prisoners, civil prisoners, kitchen and hospital, etc. were visited and the inhabitants were interviewed.
No complaint was received, rather the inhabitants were found satisfied with regard to provision of basic facilities, he said.
Mr Khan’s lawyer Naeem Haider Panjotha said that despite this “inhuman” treatment, the PTI chief’s morale is high and he is standing like a rock for democracy and supremacy of law.
He has been serving a three-year jail term, handed down by a court in the Toshakhana case earlier this month.
Soon after the arrest, Mr Panjotha had claimed that the PTI chief was being kept in “distressing conditions” and provided “C-Class jail facilities”. PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi also claimed the former premier was being kept in a ‘9x11 feet cell’.
However, the PTI leader was later granted B-Class facilities and allowed a meeting with his wife, Bushra Bibi.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2023
