PTI founder Imran Khan has appointed three focal persons for meetings with him in Adiala Jail after standard operating procedures (SOPs) were agreed to with the prison superintendent regarding visitation, it emerged on Saturday.

The document regarding the SOPs for the “smooth conduct of meetings of convicted prisoner Imran Khan Niazi with his lawyers, family members, friends/colleagues”, dated March 28, was issued in compliance with various Islamabad High Court orders this month.

As per the SOPs, PTI leaders Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Sher Afzal Marwat, and Barrister Umair Ahmad Khan Niazi have been designated the focal persons for meetings with Imran at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

The document said Imran would be permitted to meet his family and lawyers in two separate sessions on Tuesday and his “lawyers/friends” in one session on Thursday with the time for the meetings ranging from 30-45 minutes with a maximum of six people allowed in each session.

It added that those intending to visit Imran must approach the jail authorities through the designated focal persons who will share the visitor list — two people by each focal person — a day before the meeting while keeping in mind the six-person cap.

It said Imran was in the “best position” to decide who he wanted to meet or not. The document concluded by saying that those possessing IHC orders would be accommodated in the sessions with their order of priority decided by the PTI founder or the focal persons.

The development comes after the Punjab Government imposed a two-week ban on visitors at Adiala Jail on March 12 citing reports from security agencies about a “terror threat”.

The move was decried by PTI leaders, who deemed it a deliberate plan to stop them from meeting party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated at the facility.

A petition filed by Marwat was taken up by Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir on March 13. He issued a notice to the jail superintendent and asked him to appear before the bench the next day. In his plea, the PTI lawmaker had asked the court to set aside the notification.

Marwat had argued that the Punjab government imposed the ban on meetings between inmates and their relatives and friends for two weeks owing to alleged security threats. As a result, prisoners could neither meet visitors nor consult their legal teams, he said, urging the court to strike down the ban.