PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters, party workers and supporters are continuing their sit-in past midnight at Factory Naka, near Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, to demand their court-mandated meeting with the ex-premier.
A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 this year mandated that meetings with Imran would be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the order is not being honoured.
Despite the IHC’s order, Imran’s sisters — Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan Niazi — along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, have tried and failed to meet Imran over the past several weeks. Last Tuesday, after being denied a meeting with the PTI chief, his sisters and party supporters staged a sit-in, which was dispersed early morning with water cannons.
Late on Tuesday night, Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas arrived at the protest site and began one-on-one consultations with PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja.
Afterwards, the MWM senator is expected to consult with Aleema before a decision is made on whether to call off the protest or continue.
A large number of party workers and supporters are participating in the sit-in, where a heavy contingent of police is also present.
Some of the demonstrators also scrawled pro-PTI messaging on the walls of petrol pumps and other structures near the protest site. Some of the messages included the number “804”, which is reportedly Imran’s prisoner number.
A later update revealed that the lights at the protest site were turned off, prompting the PTI demonstrators to use their phone flashlights as a light source as sloganeering intensified.
Earlier today, Imran’s sisters marched toward the prison before being stopped. Speaking to a reporter as she marched, Aleema said, “We will sit wherever we are stopped”.
When asked if she had prepared for the deployment of water cannons or a prolonged sit-in, she replied that she had brought warm clothes and a blanket, showing the latter on camera.
Speaking to reporters, Aleema stated that this occurs every Tuesday at the same location, maintaining that she and her party supporters are not engaging in any illegal or unconstitutional activities.
“We have no other option left besides protesting,” she said. “Our founder’s demand is the restoration of the Constitution, democracy and the rule of law.”
She claimed that the judiciary has been stripped of independence, unemployment is rising due to the stoppage of trade with Afghanistan and that the security situation is deteriorating.
Referring to her sister Uzma’s brief meeting with Imran on December 2 and the government’s claim of “political conversations” that violated jail rules, Aleema urged the government to tell the family what was discussed.
“Tell me what political matters my sister discussed in the last meeting. Political topics should be discussed with the people of the party,” she said.
Asked about a recent AI (artificial intelligence)-generated image of Imran in prison, which went viral, Aleema acknowledged she was not aware of artificial intelligence, but maintained that he looked the same as the person in the photograph as recently as October.
“Until two months ago, when we used to go visit the jail, the founder used to look exactly like this,” she said. “It may be AI, but it is the right AI.
“I don’t know what the prison looks like from the inside, but I can say that Imran Khan looked like this on October 16, the last time we met,” Aleema added.
She said that Imran told Uzma during their meeting that “the mental torture is far worse than the physical torture” and that he is being kept in solitary confinement.
“They think he will break, but Imran Khan is a man with faith in God. He will not break,” Aleema emphasised. “Imran Khan has said he is ready to accept death, but he will not be subdued by cruelty and injustice.”
She added that the government wants Imran to cut a deal with them, but insisted that he is not imprisoned for himself, but for the supremacy of the Constitution and rule of law.
Naeem Haider Panjhuta, Imran’s spokesperson on legal affairs, filmed a video from the site of the sit-in, showing crowds of PTI workers staging the demonstration into this evening.
“We are waiting for a meeting with Khan sahib. Today is the designated day for family and lawyers to meet him,” he said. “They are not letting us meet him, despite the IHC court order and visits being permitted in the jail manual.”
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who was also present at the sit-in, urged everyone to come and join the demonstration and express solidarity with the sisters of the party founder.
“This is not only the job of the assembly members,” he said. “How can these people (the government) tell someone what they can and cannot discuss in a meeting?”
However, the party’s secretary general gave a fiery response to a question, asking, “Do you think 20-30,000 people can overthrow a system that has been in place for the past 78 years?
“We are calling out to the entire nation. We do not want to carry on this drama for another day, after which people will die,” Raja said. “We will make a conscious effort and will not submit to pressure.”
He added that people’s consciences need to be shaken to ensure Imran’s release and said that the moment would come when hundreds of thousands of people would take to the streets.
Meanwhile, Noreen Niazi told reporters that the PTI is a peaceful political party and claimed that they had been “injured” by the water cannons deployed last week.
She added that they would “do whatever is necessary to free Imran Khan” and maintained that he was unlawfully imprisoned.
A livestream posted by the party on X showed crowds of young PTI supporters waving flags and chanting slogans as they made their way towards the prison.
Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023.
The PTI has regularly raised concerns about his health and that of his wife. Imran’s son, Kasim Khan, expressed fear during a December 1 interview that authorities are concealing “something irreversible” about his father’s condition.
However, Uzma Khanum, Imran’s sister, said on December 2 that her incarcerated brother was “perfectly fine” after she was allowed to meet him, putting to rest rumours surrounding the former premier’s health.
In a short talk with the media after the meeting, she said: “Imran Khan’s health is perfectly fine. However, he was very angry and said that they are subjecting him to mental torture.”
She added that Imran was confined to his cell throughout the day and was allowed only a short time outside. Uzma further said that he was not in communication with anyone, and the meeting between them lasted around 30 minutes.
Last Friday, a United Nations special rapporteur warned that Imran is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment and called on Pakistani authorities to comply with international norms and standards.
Expressing grave concern over the report, the party said it exposed the “degrading treatment” of party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan during his incarceration at Adiala Jail and amounted to a “blatant violation of international law and fundamental human rights.”
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