PTI leaders were once again denied a meeting with incarcerated party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday, as party leaders lamented the restrictions and said the government should have “shown a big heart”.

A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 mandated that meetings with Imran will be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the order is not being honoured. The party has staged sit-ins near the prison to demand a meeting with the party founder, with one earlier this week dispersed with water cannons.

“I was hoping that, considering the offer of talks by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the first day of the new year, the government would allow us to meet PTI’s founding chairman,“ said Muhammad Jamal Khan, a member of the National Assembly (MNA) while talking to Dawn.

“It could have been the first step towards creating national harmony and ending the tense political environment, but the government lost that chance.”

On Wednesday, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja had written a letter to the Superintendent at Adiala jail — where Imran is imprisoned — and shared the names of six people for a meeting with the party founder. The names included Dr Amjad Ali, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Usman Bhattani, Iqbal Khattak, Shoaib Ameer Awan and Muhammad Jamal Khan.

The MNA said he approached the gate of Adiala jail at 2:30 pm and informed the jail staff that his name had been forwarded by Raja for the meeting.

“The officials told me that they had noted my name and suggested I return to the check post and wait, where media personnel were also standing,” Jamal added.

“They told me that I would be informed if they got the approval for the meeting. I waited there until 4:40 pm, but they kept telling me that they had not received approval to let me in.”

When asked why only two people arrived outside Adiala jail, despite the prison administrators having received six names, Jamal said that he and Member of the Provincial Assembly Iqbal Khan Khattak had arrived at the prison together.

“There is a possibility that other leaders might have been elsewhere at Adiala jail. I did not have their contact numbers, so I cannot confirm whether they had arrived or not,” he added.

Replying to a question, Jamal said that the government had shown weakness.

“It should have allowed the meeting to signal that it is serious about negotiations, and the nation would have seen it as a positive message from the government,” he added.

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.

Earlier this month, 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.”

A sit-in staged by PTI leaders and the sisters of incarcerated party founder Imran Khan was once again dispersed using water cannons late on Tuesday night.