LAHORE: Responding to PTI patron-in-chief Imran Khan’s claim that he is enduring the harshest prison term in the country’s history, the Punjab government says the former prime minister is being provided with the facilities of B-Class at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi.

“The PTI founder is receiving B-Class privileges that most other inmates in the same category do not have access to,” Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Azma Bokhari said here on Thursday.

“We reject Imran Khan’s statement about inadequate jail facilities. Azma Bokhari said: “Imran Khan who once had others’ (Nawaz Sharif) air-conditioners removed in jail is now spreading propaganda about being denied facilities in jail. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to gain public sympathy and discredit state institutions.”

She questioned the credibility of PTI’s political strength, saying how could a party with no leader at the helm even think of launching a protest movement.

Referring to the ongoing legal proceedings related to the May 9 cases, she said the court decisions being made were in accordance with the constitution and the law. “Those involved in anti-state conspiracies have been legally declared as rebels.” Addressing the PTI founder’s personal conduct, the minister said, he ‘sacrificed’ the children of the nation for his political agenda while ensuring that his own children were living a luxuriously life abroad.

Bokhari said the government and the state institutions would continue to counter every conspiracy strictly within constitutional and legal frameworks.

Imran Khan in a post on his X account said on Thursday that “never in the history of Pakistan has any political leader been subjected to the treatment that I am currently enduring. Nawaz Sharif committed corruption worth billions and was nevertheless granted every possible comfort in prison. In contrast, never before has the innocent and apolitical spouse of a political figure been imprisoned under such inhumane conditions as those imposed upon Bushra Bibi.”

Khan further said he was enduring the harshest prison term in the country’s history solely for the supremacy of the Constitution and in service of nation.

“The level of oppression and authoritarianism is such that even the water I have for ablution is filthy and contaminated with dirt, unfit for any human being. Books sent to me by my family have been withheld for months. Access to television and newspapers has also been suspended. I have spent countless hours re-reading the same old books, but now even those are no longer available,” he said and added all my basic human rights had been violated.

“Even the minimum facilities accorded to ordinary prisoners under the law and the jail manual are denied to me,” he alleged.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2025