IMF, EU officials ‘routinely’ visit Imran in jail: Elahi

LAHORE: Officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union “routinely” visit Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, the party’s incarcerated President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi claimed on Thursday.

However, the Punjab Prisons department spokesperson immediately dismissed Elahi’s claim and termed it “baseless and against the facts”.

Talking to journalists in the courtroom in Lahore, the PTI president, when he was brought in connection with the hearing of a money laundering case lodged against him, said that Khan was incarcerated in a cell adjacent to his in the prison. “Representatives from the EU and IMF [routinely] visit Imran,” he claimed.

Responding to a question about the upcoming polls, slated to be held on February 8, 2024, the former Punjab chief minister said the ousted prime minister would secure an unprecedented number of votes.

“There will be no rigging in this election,” he said, adding that the polls’ date was announced on the directions of top court. To another question, the PTI president said that no one had asked him for a press conference to-date. Elahi further said that he stood with Khan and will continue to support the deposed prime minister in the future as well.

Elahi, then made a surprising claim: “We always have had good relations with the establishment.”

Meanwhile, caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi rebutted the claim made by Elahi on routine visits of representatives of IMF and EU to Imran Khan in Adiala Jail.

“There is not a single grain of truth in this fantasy and it is truly nothing but a figment of imagination by the senior politico,” he wrote in his post on X, formerly twitter.

Solangi urged the media to verify such “hallucinations” with the authorities concerned before publishing such “nonsense”.

Also, the prisons department termed Elahi’s statement regarding the meeting of PTI Chairman Imran Khan with IMF and European Union representatives in Adiala Jail as baseless, contrary to facts and contradictory.

The spokesperson for the department said that PTI chairman and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had been kept at separate places in Adiala Jail, which has an average distance of more than 500 meters.

He said Elahi had never had any meeting or contact in Adiala Jail. The spokesman said that more than three hundred CCTV cameras have been installed for the security of Adiala Jail, and the control room of the IG Jails Punjab office was constantly monitoring it.

Meanwhile, a local court extended the judicial remand of Elahi by 14 days in a case involving illegal appointments to the Punjab Assembly.

Simultaneously, in a money-laundering case by the FIA, a special court (Central) adjourned the hearing against Elahi and his son, Moonis Elahi, until November 30.