NEVER have the courts appeared so helpless in enforcing their writ. On Thursday, a three-member Islamabad High Court bench, headed by the IHC chief justice, had ordered the Adiala jail superintendent to ensure that meetings with incarcerated prime minister Imran Khan were arranged twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with his lawyers, family members and party leaders, according to the SOPs. Shortly thereafter, when a group of PTI leaders, including the new KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi arrived at Adiala jail to meet their jailed leader, they were once again prevented from doing so. In the end, they could do little but register a protest outside the jail premises. It bears noting that the superintendent of Adiala jail had been present in the IHC when the court’s directives were issued. As such, there seems to be no good justification for why a clear order of the court was so casually set aside by the jail authorities.

Mr Afridi, who was one of the petitioners in the cases heard by the IHC, has wished to meet Mr Khan ever since he was elected chief minister, but has had scant luck in the endeavour. “He might give me some good advice […] There is nothing wrong with us wanting to meet our leader,” he told the media, while protesting the denial of his meeting with Mr Khan. Even the IHC had not disagreed. After all, even in the past, jailed political leaders have been allowed to meet their lieutenants and offer their guidance. Further, given the vitiated sociopolitical and security situation in KP, it would have been good optics if this long-sought meeting had been allowed. Instead, the message that was sent out was that neither law nor court directives can bind what has become a state within the state. It is disquieting how threadbare the ‘rule of law’ has become. The judiciary has only itself to blame.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2025