Former Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who is lodged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, is in “good health”, but being subjected to “mental torture in solitary confinement”, said his sister, Dr. Uzma Khanum, who met him after weeks on no-contact.
“Praise be to Allah! His health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture,” she said.
Khanum claimed that Khan said the authorities were “mentally torturing” him as he was kept in his cell for most part of the day and allowed to go out only for a brief time, but not allowed to communicate with anybody.
According to a leading Pakistani English daily, Uzma was accompanied by scores of supporters and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a political party founded by Khan, when she went to visit him.
The development comes amid heightened rumours of Khan’s death, following weeks of no contact with his family after the State issued an unsaid gag order against the jailed former PM.
Social media became rife with news that Khan was no more, triggering his supporters to announce mass protests across the country and outside Adiala Jail. They also held protests outside the Islamabad High Court despite Section 144 being in force there.
Also Read: Jailed former Pak PM Imran Khan in ‘good health’: Authorities
Meanwhile, the Punjab government deployed the entire Rawalpindi police force along Adiala Road to thwart the PTI protest, with the country’s Minister of State for Interior, Tallal Chaudhry, warning protestors that “whether they come to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) or the Adiala jail, action under Section 144 would be carried out without any discrimination”.
Khan, 73, was accused of corruption by the current Pakistani regime and sent to jail in August, 2023. His family said they were unable to meet him since weeks, despite court orders granting them permission.
On Monday, Kasim Khan, Imran Khan’s son, expressed fears that the authorities are concealing “something irreversible” about his father’s condition.
“Not knowing whether your father is safe, injured or even alive is a form of psychological torture,” he told an international media agency.
Aleema Khan, another sister of Imran Khan, also filed a contempt of court petition against the Adiala Jail authorities on Tuesday for allegedly defying a binding IHC order that permits meetings with him.
Khan’s party has warned the authorities of countrywide protests if the government does not allow his sisters to see him.
His sisters have also warned that if anything happens to Khan, those involved and their families will not be spared by Pakistanis both here and abroad.
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