ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s counsel, on Monday, approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), requesting it to transfer the former prime minister from Attock district prison to Adiala Jail.
Naeem Haider Panjotha, the lawyer of the PTI chief, moved the petition through advocate Sher Afzal Marwat and cited the Federation through the interior secretary, Islamabad chief commissioner, and superintendent Adiala Jail and superintendent District Jail Attock as respondents.
The counsel requested the court to transfer Khan to Adiala Jail where A-class facilities are available. He added that his family, lawyers, and Dr Faisal Sultan should be allowed to meet him.
He prayed that the petitioner may be declared as entitled to the better class/A-Class facilities and consequently, the respondents be directed to award A-Class facilities to the petitioner during his period of detention in any jail or Adiala Jail.
He stated that Imran is the former prime minister of Pakistan, chairman of the largest political party of the country, and founder of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi.
He further said that since childhood, the petitioner is from an affluent family, and later due to his education, habits, and social and political status in the society, has got accustomed to a better mode of life. He said that the petitioner is a graduate of Oxford University, UK and the most celebrated captain of Pakistan’s national cricket team during the 80s and 90s with the distinction as the captain of the World Cup-winning cricket team of Pakistan in the year 1992.
The counsel said that the petitioner was arrested from his Zaman Park residence allegedly in execution of a warrant of committal to prison issued by Additional District and Sessions Judge Islamabad, Humayun Dilawar, who earlier the same day had pronounced a verdict qua petitioner in a “fake and manipulated” private complaint.
He said that it has been learnt through electronic media that the petitioner was supposed to be lodged at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi as per the warrant issued by the court but on the contrary, the petitioner has been shifted to the Attock jail and he has been kept at the Attock jail by the Punjab government and it is yet to be ascertained as to under which provision of law the custody of the petitioner has been shifted to the Attock jail.
Panjotha informed the court, Imran Khan has been confined in a 9x11 feet cell in Attock Jail with an annexed dirty bathroom. The petitioner has been denied access to his lawyers, family members, personal doctor, political aides, and other relevant persons.
He further said that the legal team visited the jail for executing the power of attorneys, but they were denied access even to reach the dungeon. He continued that the petitioner through counsel have also additional pleas as and when the case is taken up by this court
He prayed that while declaring the petitioner’s detention in Attock Jail as illegal, the respondents may graciously be directed to shift the petitioner to the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.
He also prayed that he may be allowed to regularly have interviews/meetings with his legal team as per the enclosed list, and the right to be interviewed by his family members and personal doctor namely, Dr Faisal Sultan, and political aides (as per the list) and in the interest of justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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