Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Friday approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking permission to meet PTI founder Imran Khan in Adiala Jail.

On Thursday, Afridi, who was elected as the provincial chief minister on Monday, was denied a meeting with Imran during a visit to the prison. The PTI founder, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the May 9 protests.

Afridi said he waited outside the prison for around two hours yesterday bef­ore departing. Speaking to reporters, he said he would announce his cabinet after consulting Imran and seeking his input. He claimed he had officially notified the Punjab government and the federal government of his plan to visit Adiala, but received no response, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did not reply to his subsequent request, made during a phone call, to facilitate a meeting with Imran.

Per Afridi’s writ petition seen by Dawn.com, as a chief minister, he was constitutionally responsible for governance of the province, and was “under both legal and moral obligation” to consult Imran for “guidance and instructions of urgent and sensitive provincial matters” concerning the governance and formation of the provincial cabinet.

The petition was filed against the federal secretary of the Interior Ministry, the secretary of the Punjab Home Department, the inspector general of Punjab prisons, and the superintendent of Central Prison Adiala, Rawalpindi.

Filed through counsel Syed Ali Bukhari, the petition stated that Afridi had approached the Interior Ministry and Punjab Home Department on October 15, 2025, seeking a meeting with Imran through an official letter that was “duly received” by both offices.

Aside from approaching the IHC, CM Afridi also wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, requesting the arrangement of a meeting with Imran.

According to the letter, seen by Dawn.com, it was “necessary in the public interest that a periodical meeting” of the KP CM be permitted under the supervision of the competent authorities at Central Prison Adiala, Rawalpindi.

Per the letter, Afridi has been elected CM of KP on the ticket of PTI, a province with a population of 45 million, for the governance and securing/safeguarding the fundamental rights and matters relating to law and order situation, formation of provincial cabinet, critical economic challenges being faced by the province’s people and important policy matters.

“There is a pressing need to seek direction from [Imran] regarding [these] matters and others, including relations regarding certain important matters with the federation and other provinces,” said the letter.

“The seeking of direction is extremely essential, even presently the province of Punjab has stopped the inter-provincial trade, i.e., of wheat, etc,” the letter said.

Separately, in a post on X, Afridi apologised for not attending the meeting regarding agriculture and Afghan refugees with the federal government today, saying that he was unable to do so without consulting Imran first.

“Until I meet [Imran Khan] and receive policy guidelines, participating in such a meeting would be an insult to the mandate of the province’s people,” he said.

“I hope that the federal government will resolve this issue as soon as possible and issue directions to the relevant authorities so that arrangements can be made for my regular meetings with my leader and the representative of the mandate of the people of KP.”

Pre-election controversy

Afridi was elected the new KP chief executive on Monday during an assembly session marred by the opposition’s walkout and amid the prevailing uncertainty regarding the resignation of outgoing CM Ali Amin Gandapur.

Declaring Afridi’s election constitutional, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice S.M. Attique Shah had orderered KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Tuesday to administer the oath by 4pm the next day or else the provincial assembly speaker would perform the ceremony the same day under Article 255(2) of the Constitution.