The federal government on Thursday ruled out any further meetings for Uzma Khanum and others who violated the prison code while meeting PTI founder Imran Khan.

Uzma met the party founder in prison on Tuesday after weeks of effort. The meeting took place as rumours regarding Imran’s health began circulating in local and foreign media, despite claims by the government and PTI leaders that the former prime minister was in good health.

These speculations, however, gained traction due to the government’s reluctance to let visitors, including his family members and legal team, meet Imran over the past few weeks. Uzma subsequently detailed instructions from Imran to the party regarding political and other matters.

Addressing a press conference with Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on the entire situation, the information minister announced: “There is no room in the [prison] rules for political discussions and it was reported that political discussions occurred, so meetings are now banned for Uzma Khan. This won’t happen.”

He added that reports of incitement against the state and its officials had surfaced. “Meetings are banned for anyone who violates the rules,” Attaullah said, adding that it was not right for people to hold meetings and then go on to peddle “Indian and Afghan stances and orchestrate posts against the army and the army chief”.

The minister added that a chance was provided, and now “the meeting has been banned for whoever committed the violation.”

Attaullah said the government would tolerate no more violations and would deal with anyone who did so with an iron hand.

“There is zero room for a circus.”

The law minister also said that the prison rules for allowing meetings were the same as always and laid out specific provisions that contained restrictions on how they should be conducted.

PTI slams press conference against Imran’s family

PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram lashed out at what he described as “political clowns and puppets” for their “relentless campaign” against Imran and his family.

He said the onslaught “exposes the imposed and petrified regime’s sheer desperation to divert public attention from the chronic crises the country is grappling with as a result of its myopic, shortsighted, and self-serving policies”.

The PTI spokesperson expressed his astonishment that the “Sharif courtiers and political pawns” would now “presume to distribute certificates of patriotism and nationalism”, even though, he said, they were the very ones who hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jati Umra and attended his family’s wedding functions.

Akram emphasised that the PTI founder never hosted any Pakistani adversaries in Bani Gala, nor did he establish business links with anti-Pakistani elements. He alleged that it was only the Sharif dynasty that compromised the country and state interests for its personal and business gains, showing little regard for the nation itself.

He made it clear that the “imposed regime’s false and fabricated rhetoric” was nothing more than a “desperate attempt to divert media and public attention, as self-serving sycophants have plunged the country headlong into the whirlwinds of economic, political, social and constitutional crises”.

Akram said that “disinformation minister Atta Tarar’s press conference was completely devoid of facts, driven by panic and dripping with political vengeance,” adding that it was a reflection of the ruling circle’s “fear” and what he called “Imran Khan phobia”.

He vowed that the “daily circus of jokers” unleashed to spew venom against Imran and the PTI may pollute the political environment, but it could no longer fool a nation that was now wide awake, fully aware of the real culprits and how state power was being weaponised for revenge.

Commenting on the government’s claims of providing all facilities to Imran, the PTI spokesperson asserted that the PTI patron-in-chief was kept in arbitrary detention under death-cell conditions in solitary confinement, being denied all entitlements as per jail rules.

He also blasted the “hybrid regime” for repeatedly denying meetings between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and Imran, refusing access to personal physicians and preventing his sons from speaking with him for several months.

Akram stated that the hue and cry was a clear reflection that Imran remained a nightmare for them, so much so that they could not even sleep peacefully due to their “fear”.

He vowed that neither the nation’s leader nor the now-awakened public would allow these “fraudulently imposed rulers” to escape accountability for their crimes.

The PTI spokesperson asserted that the days of this “cabal of crooks” were numbered, and that soon the public would punish them for their “transgressions, corruption, theft of the public mandate, and tyranny”.

Akram reaffirmed that Imran and his party, together with the nation, would continue their just struggle to uphold democracy, the rule of law, constitutional supremacy and the independence of the judiciary.