Visitors meetings with PTI founder: IHC orders compliance with schedule

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed the prison authorities to strictly implement the schedule for holding 45-minute meetings with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder in jail for two days.

The larger bench wrote in the judgment that they do not consider it appropriate to interfere with the pre-arranged mechanism for meetings with the PTI founder on Tuesday and Thursday, so the jail superintendent should strictly follow the schedule of holding meetings for two days.

Salman Akram Raja has undertaken that those who meet PTI founder Imran Khan would not talk to the media outside the jail. The court also disposed of 30 applications with the consent of the parties, and ended the contempt-of-court proceedings initiated for transferring the case.

A three-member larger bench of the IHC comprising Acting Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar, Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir and Justice Azam Khan issued a written decision on the applications for visits to the PTI founder in prison.

The court wrote in the decision that Raja had said the schedule for meetings with the PTI founder was fixed in the intra-court appeal, which was changed by the jail authorities themselves.A committee was formed to send the names of those who would meet the PTI founder, but the jail authorities are not even considering the names sent by the committee for the meetings.

The court was told that the names of those who would meet the PTI founder were sent by a committee, consisting of Raja, Barrister Gohar and Intizar Panjotha, which was formed by the PTI founder.

The jail superintendent’s counsel Naveed Malik said that due to security threats, a minor change was made in the schedule for meetings. Earlier, meetings of lawyers and family members were held on separate days, but now these meetings are being held on the same day with a break.

The counsel said the facility of meeting friends is being misused by making political statements immediately after the meeting in jail, so in such a situation, the jail superintendent has the authority to withdraw this facility.

According to the report of the jail superintendent, 101 applications were filed for providing facilities in prison, and for holding meetings in jail with the PTI founder.

The report said that according to the jail rules, prisoners are not allowed to talk about politics during meetings, but after leaving the jail, the visitors spread propaganda on electronic and social media, and make baseless allegations in provocative and derogatory conversations against state institutions.

The report also said lawyers and prosecutors are allowed to enter the jail without hindrance during the trial. Raja vowed that no media talk would be done outside the jail by the visitors. None of the parties present in court raised any objection to the hearing before the bench.

The court said that all the applications are being disposed of with the consent of the parties, so the contempt proceedings are also being dismissed. Future petitions in this regard will be fixed before the same bench, the court concluded.