IHC orders Imran’s meeting with his lawyers in jail

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered for arranging a meeting of lawyers with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan in jail.

On Thursday, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the IHC conducted hearing against order of restriction on holding a meeting with the PTI founder in jail. During the hearing, Superintendent Adiala Jail Asad Warraich appeared before the court and told the court that hundreds of applications were being filed for holding meetings with the PTI founder.

Lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat told the court the issue had been settled in the court of Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan.

The superintendent said it was ordered that lawyers, along with six persons, would be allowed to hold a meeting with him. He stated that he had 7,000 prisoners, adding the court gave permission to six persons to hold a meeting with him, but it was not possible for the jail authorities.

Justice Arbab Tahir told the jail chief that he had been coming back with a new objection on daily basis. The judge told the jail superintendent that if he did not comply with the court order contempt of court proceedings would be initiated against him.

The jail superintendent said he was obeying the court order, and also referred to the Punjab Home Department orders. The court told him that an application for initiating contempt of court proceedings was already pending against him.

When hearing started again, Lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat told the court they had agreed upon a mechanism with the jail superintendent.

The court ordered for appointing a focal person in this regard, remarking that “we will keep pending the petition” and ordered for settling the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Sher Afzal told the court that four of the PTI leaders would meet Imran Khan on Thursday, and on Tuesday they would again go for holding a meeting.

Justice Arbab Tahir told the superintendent the court was not asking for giving permission to each and every to hold a meeting with Imran Khan, and added that only those six lawyers, whose names were given by the PTI founder, would hold a meeting. The superintendent stated that they were facing the problem as everyone was saying that he was a lawyer and wanted to hold a meeting with the PTI founder.

Twenty lawyers had reached the jail and they all said they wanted to attend the court hearing inside the jail.

The jail superintendent said the Home Department had specific directions regarding holding of meetings with prisoners. The judge said the court could not direct him for allowing all lawyers to attend the court proceedings and it was up to him to decide on the matter.

Afterwards, the court gave permission to four lawyers to hold a meeting with the PTI founder.

The government lawyer requested the court that it should give lawyers permission only to talk about cases.

The court remarked that the authorities should not go into such depth and ordered for arranging the meeting of four lawyers with the PTI chief.