Session Judge report reveals condition of Imran Khan’s cell in Attock Jail

A report by a Sessions Judge in Attock has revealed that former Prime Minister Imran Khan is being held in a cell with no privacy in the washroom, among other precarious conditions.

The PTI chief was convicted of concealing details of state gifts and sentenced to three years in prison on August 5. He was arrested by the Punjab police from his residence in Lahore and taken to District Jail Attock the same day.

On August 7, Imran Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, who was allowed to meet him by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), had criticized the conditions in which his client is being held. He said Imran was being kept in a small, dark room with no shower.

“He [Imran] said the jail has flies in the morning and insects in the evening,” Panjutha had said.

On August 17, Imran’s wife, Bushra Bibi, expressed concern that he may be poisoned while in prison. She called on the jail authorities to ensure that Imran’s food was safe to eat and that he was not subjected to any harm.

In a letter addressed to the Punjab home department, Bushra Bibi sought the ex-PM’s transfer from District Jail Attock to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail and expressed fear he could be poisoned in lock-up.

In his fortnightly jail inspection report written on August 15, Judge Shafqut Ullah Khan revealed that he visited inhabitants of the jail and received no complaint from any of them, “rather, the inhabitants were found satisfied.”

However, things were different when the judge visited the cell of the PTI chief. The report added that Imran himself expressed concerns regarding CCTV cameras and access to him in jail.

The report said that Imran “expressed grave concern qua CCTV camera installed in the front of the prison bars at the distance of 5/6 feet covering bathroom-cum-laterine having small L-shaped walls two and a half or three feet high leaving no privacy while bathing or defecating.”

The judge found Imran Khan’s concerns to be “genuine” and called them a violation of the Prison Rules 257 and 771.

However, the jail’s superintendent assured the judge that this complaint would be addressed. Aaj News reported on Saturday that the construction of a washroom had begun in the cell.

The judge wrote that Imran also complained that his lawyers and wife were not being given access to him. The superintendent also assured me that this complaint would be addressed.