PTI approaches CJP for jail visitation rights

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Barrister Gohar Ali Khan speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court.—Photo by the writer
Barrister Gohar Ali Khan speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court.—Photo by the writer

ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Te­­hreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has submitted a memorandum to the Supreme Co­­urt registrar, requesting for immediate jail visitation rights for party’s founder Imran Khan with his family, doctors, lawyers and friends.

Led by PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, a number of party members including parliamentarians gathered outside the SC but regretted in a memorandum to Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi that access to Mr Khan’s family and his lawyers was again denied on Tuesday last, the day fixed by the court for meetings with his family and lawyers.

Heavy contingent of police was stationed at the SC when the PTI leaders reached the premises on Friday to submit the memorandum to the registrar office.

The PTI chairman said this was the ‘10th time’ the party was ap­­proaching the apex court about Mr Khan while they had approached the high court 16 times.

Memorandum submitted through registrar office says Imran’s family, lawyers, personal doctors being denied access, despite repeated court orders

According to the two-page memorandum, the former premier had been incarcerated in Central Jail, Adiala, Rawal­pindi since Aug 5, 2023. During this period, his rights as a prisoner and a human being have been consistently violated, it alleged. He had been denied visitation by family, lawyers and friends for long periods of time at the whim and will of the powers that be, it alleged, adding this forced isolation constituted torture under all cannons of international law and our own jurisprudence.

It regretted that orders of the superior courts, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in particular, had been disregarded with impunity. It added that the IHC, despite repeated petitions seeking action for contempt of court, declined to act in order to enforce its orders.

The chief justice was informed that the appeal filed before the SC against the IHC inaction was returned with direction that the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) should be moved instead. That, too, was done months ago but no hearing was fixed, the memorandum regretted.

Several other petitions filed before the SC against the denial of fundamental rights to Mr Khan and his incarcerated wife Bushra Bibi were also transferred to the FCC, yet no hearing was granted, it said.

Filed by opposition members of the Senate and the National Assembly, petitions for jail visitation rights of Mr Khan were found ‘unfit’ for fixation, the memorandum said, adding that repeated applications and representations before the IHC and its chief justice for the fixation of an appeal and application for suspension of sentence, too, remained exercises in futility. Unwarranted convictions were awarded to the ex-premier and his wife over a year ago, it said, describing the failure to hear and decide the applications for suspension of sentences as “oppressive”.

The memorandum also highlighted the reports about Mr Khan being subjected to some secretive medical procedure at a hospital in Islamabad and keeping his relatives in dark in violation of jail rules.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2026

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