PTI members, including former KP minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, protested the denial of meetings with party founder and ex-premier Imran Khan outside Adiala jail on Thursday.

Water cannons were used early on Wednesday to disperse PTI leaders and protesters staging a sit-in near Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, after his family was denied a meeting with the ex-premier.

A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 this year mandated that meetings with Imran would be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the order is not being honoured.

Jhagra was accompanied by PTI leaders, including Aftab Alam, Adnan Qadri, Pir Musavir Khan, Muhammad Israr and Liaqat Ali Khan. They were stopped at the Dahgali checkpoint on their way to the prison and staged a sit-in on the spot. However, they quietly gathered and left after a period of time.

Jhagra wrote in a post on X: “870 unique meetings supposedly, but today was the 60th Thursday in a row when no one was allowed to meet Imran Khan,” referring to a quote by the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi.

“When you learn to lie about numbers, lie shamelessly: Form 47 disease going viral from the ECP to government spokesmen!”

“However, the fact is that since October 2024, as many as 60 weeks have passed, but not a single meeting of Imran Khan with his political friends has been allowed,” Jhagra told reporters at the site.

“Party leaders come here every week, but they are not allowed to meet [Imran]. On the other hand, during the last 60 weeks, just one or two meetings of Imran Khan have been allowed with the family in which all family members were allowed to meet the former prime minister,” he added.

Jhagra said that the PTI came to Adiala to expose the “hybrid, fascist system” and to protest the use of water cannons to disperse party leaders and workers during a sit-in in the early hours of Wednesday.

“There is no law prohibiting prisoners from meeting their families,” he said. “You (the authorities) break the law by not allowing a meeting and then make it difficult to protest this. Everyone sits in a plot over there, yet you close the main road.”

He also assailed the government for filing a case against PTI members under terrorism charges and claiming that the KP government is incapable of handling terrorism.

“You call every PTI member a terrorist, misuse anti-terrorism law, people appear in anti-terrorism courts in politically-motivated cases, and you level allegations at us that we cannot combat terrorism,” Jhagra said.

He also warned the government to beware of the day when things would “get out of the hands of the party and people would take control into their hands and come on the roads”.

“It is condemnable that Imran Khan’s sons are not being allowed to talk to their father and they are unaware of his health,” he said. “This attitude is creating embarrassment for Pakistan.

“If you say that Pakistan first, the country should be placed before the hybrid system,” he suggested while replying to questions.

Replying to a question about why the party was not issuing a protest call, the ex-provincial minister said that it was the PTI’s responsibility to protect the lives of workers and not place them in front of bullets.

“Moreover, they want [KP Chief Minister] Sohail Afridi to make a mistake and provide them an opportunity to take further action against the KP government,” he said.

Replying to a question, Jhagra said a major issue was that only Imran’s narrative held credibility, not the hybrid system. He also suggested that when the slogan of “Pakistan First” is chanted, Pakistan should be placed before the hybrid system.

“It was General Pervez Musharraf who allowed free media, thinking that he was the most popular figure in Pakistan. But later, when he became infamous, he himself closed the media,” he added.

When asked why CM Afridi was absent, Jhagra said that he had a “double responsibility”.

“He is running the province along with efforts to release Imran Khan. He holds a cabinet meeting every week,” he said.

Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023.

The PTI has regularly raised concerns about his health and that of his wife. Imran’s son, Kasim Khan, expressed fear during a December 1 interview that authorities are concealing “something irreversible” about his father’s condition.

However, Uzma Khanum, Imran’s sister, said on December 2 that her incarcerated brother was “perfectly fine” after she was allowed to meet him, putting to rest rumours surrounding the former premier’s health.

In a short talk with the media after the meeting, she said, “Imran Khan’s health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture.”

She added that Imran was confined to his cell throughout the day and was allowed only a short time outside. Uzma further said that he was not in communication with anyone, and the meeting between them lasted around 30 minutes.

Last Friday, a United Nations special rapporteur warned that Imran is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment and called on Pakistani authorities to comply with international norms and standards.

Expressing grave concern over the report, the party said it exposed the “degrading treatment” of party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan during his incarceration at Adiala Jail and amounted to a “blatant violation of international law and fundamental human rights.”

In an interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Zaidi said that Imran had 870 unique meetings during his 860 days of incarceration.

“This doesn’t sound like solitary confinement to me,” Zaidi said, adding that Imran had held 451 interviews with his lawyers.