Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah voiced support on Friday for meetings between incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan and his family members, subject to certain conditions.
Imran has been in jail since August 2023, serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges. His family and party members have protested outside Adiala Jail in recent days, demanding a meeting but have been repeatedly denied despite orders from the courts.
Imran’s sister Aleema Khan filed a contempt of court petition against the Adiala jail superintendent and others over their failure to comply with an earlier Islamabad High Court (IHC) order that reinstated a twice-a-week meeting schedule for the incarcerated former premier.
Speaking on the matter in an interview on Geo News show ‘Naya Pakistan’, Sanaullah said: “There should be permission for meetings and they should definitely take place, but a 90-minute press conference cannot take place after an hour’s meeting; no law allows this.”
He further said that political discussions could also not take place in the meetings, saying that no law allowed a prisoner to lead, plan and guide movements on the outside from jail.
The senator maintained that it was not permitted for family members to hold press conferences outside the prison premises and for a barrage of messages to appear on social media against the state and officials.
Sanaullah argued that the IHC’s order to facilitate meetings was also contingent on similar conditions as he laid out.
“They (Imran’s family and legal team) should sit down with jail authorities and settle matters,” he said, saying that the process of meetings should be better conducted without violations from either side.
Sanaullah later said the meetings were not being allowed because they were not being conducted in accordance with the law. “The meeting should be in accordance with the law,” he maintained, reiterating that there should be no violation from either side.
The contempt petition was filed after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, along with several other PTI members, staged an overnight sit-in outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. The sit-in was staged as CM Afridi was denied a meeting with Imran for the eighth time on Thursday.
Previously, Imran’s sisters, including Aleema, had also staged sit-ins outside the prison in Rawalpindi on multiple occasions after they were barred from meeting the former premier.
The PTI ended its latest sit-in on Friday morning, with the KP CM announcing that they would be approaching the IHC, where Aleema filed the contempt plea.
Meetings not subject to whims or wishes: Barrister Aqeel
Speaking later in an interview on Geo News show ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik said meetings could not be held on anyone’s ‘whims or wishes’.
He said meetings could only be held under existing prison rules and the prerogative in this regard rests with the superintendent.
Malik added that the prison administration could curtail a prisoner’s privilege to have meetings “in the public interest” if a necessary cause was found.
However, he did not elaborate on the criteria by which the Adiala jail superintendent decides when to allow meetings or not.
Malik also maintained that the rules prevented any political discussion.
Questioned about the KP chief minister’s threat to launch a protest on Tuesday if a meeting was not allowed, the minister said the government would take the necessary measures in such a situation.
