![](https://nextpakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/4130706-702618506.jpeg)
- March 12, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
PTI leaders criticized the Punjab government’s decision, believing it was a calculated attempt to prevent them from meeting party founder Imran Khan, who is currently being held at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. The government issued a two-week ban on all public visits, meetings, and interviews at the jail, citing “security” threats.
The Punjab Home Department expressed through its Internal Security Wing that “there exist different types of threats to the security of Adiala jail as some anti-state terrorist groups supported by the enemies of Pakistan have planned to conduct targeted attacks” in a letter to the chief of Punjab prisons. The department asked the jail director to “stop public visits/meetings/interviews within the Adiala Jail immediately for two weeks” as a precaution against the previously described attacks.
Days after three terrorists were arrested and what the police claimed was an attempt to attack the jail was thwarted, the Rawalpindi Central Terrorism Department (CTD) made the decision. Along with Imran, two other prominent PTI officials being held at the Adiala jail are Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Parvez Elahi. Angry at the Punjab administration, other PTI leaders were barred from meeting with Imran because of the prohibition. We had to travel today, but we were unable to meet, according to Barrister Salman Safdar, who spoke with the media Security concerns have led to its suspension.
The PTI chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, stated during a press conference in Islamabad: “They have imposed a kind of blanket restriction for two weeks, and the excuse made was that there is a terror threat.” This broad prohibition is vehemently condemned by us. Imran’s family members and attorneys ought to have been notified before this being enforced, we demand,” he continued.
Gohar recalled “two assassination attempts” on Imran and stated, “Imran’s sudden incarceration is a sign that Khan Sahib’s life is a threat.” Outside the Adiala jail, National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan told the reporters that he and other PTI MPs were “not being allowed to meet him (Imran) despite court orders.” This prohibition is in effect for a fortnight. “We denounce this,” he said. “The Punjab home secretary ought to be embarrassed,” Ayub remarked. Maryam Nawaz, the so-called chief minister who is unconstitutional and out of law, ought to feel embarrassed over her role in overseeing this bar.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and freshly sworn-in Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who until recently had been acting as the interim chief minister of Punjab, “should be ashamed,” the PTI MNA remarked, using similar language. The NA opposition leader added, “The party denounced the ban in its strongest terms,” citing a “security threat” as the justification. The PTI secretary general voiced concern over the fact that, despite this being his third visit to the jail, he was not allowed to meet with Imran.
It was necessary to negotiate the Senate election date with Imran, Ayub added, but “the corrupt government is creating obstacles in it.” Ayub denounced it as a “bogus ban,” pointing out that the jail’s supervisor was not there and that the legislation did not permit such a prohibition. “I requested that the assistant superintendent come speak with us and provide us with information, but he fled,” the PTI MNA asserted. Ayub predicted that the PTI leaders would “call them in the National Assembly” to question the jail officials, claiming that they were “refusing” to appear before them.
The PTI secretary general reiterated his remarks from yesterday, stating, “We will get our partners of the Punjab Assembly to probe the expenses of Adiala Jail and its officers’ corruption.” The police would be called to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). According to a judicial ruling, Ayub stated, the jail administration might punish PTI members Rs. 25,000 if they were prevented from meeting Imran. “The blanket ban on meetings” with Imran, according to PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan, is a “criminal act, which reflects the extent of fear the unconstitutional and illegal government of Punjab and their handlers suffer from.”
He stated the bar would be contested in court in a post on X, hoping that the province administration would be “instructed to desist from repeating such draconian measures” and that quick relief would be granted. It is not possible to wish Imran Khan had gone by inciting state fascism. Khan gains power in proportion to the perpetrators’ efforts. “He governs the hearts,” he continued. It was stated that the former premier was subject to a “prohibition against receiving visitors in Adiala Jail during the inaugural day of the sacred month of Ramazan” Sher Afzal Marwat.
Marwat stated that the “expulsion of media personnel from the premises of Adiala Jail constitutes a measure starkly at odds with democratic principles” in a post on X. He continued, “We strongly condemn this autocratic approach. PTI MNA declared, “We are determined to resist this repression, making sure that this complaint is vigorously pursued across all political platforms, including the sacred halls of Parliament.”