Imran seeks CJP, IHC CJ’s intervention over ‘treatment’ of PTI, citizens

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi and Acting Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Justice Sarfraz Dogar to take action against “what was meted out to the PTI as well as people of this country for the past two years”.

The PTI founder addressed a letter to both the CJP and the Acting CJ of the IHC, titled “The State of the Constitution and the Rule of Law in Pakistan”.

The ex-premier submitted that “today, the nation needs belief in the decency of the state and the people need to be assured that they matter as human beings”.

“We need to come together and heal our wounds hence the instant letter is a plea for action, states the letter, written by PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on behalf of the party’s founding chairman.

It stated that Imran Khan is presently facing over two hundred frivolous cases all across the country. It further said that apart from the above mentioned cases, nearly two hundred other cases registered against the PTI founder. “With the country facing the threat of external aggression it is Mr. Imran Khan alone who can bind the entire nation, from Karachi to Khyber, to a common purpose”, the letter added.

“The continuing imprisonment of several associates of Mr. Imran Khan, including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, Mian Mahmood ur Rashid, Senator Ijaz Chaudhry and former Governor Punjab, Umer Sarfraz Cheema, despite the lapse of over 600 days in each case, points to the continuing regime of persecution and misuse of the criminal justice system prevalent in the country.”

It stated that despite court orders, Imran Khan is not allowed weekly telephonic conversations with his sons.

It was further stated that Imran Khan is also not allowed meetings with his wife as per jail manual. \It was further informed that for the past two years Imran Khan has been subjected to trial within the jail premises.

Both the CJP and the acting CJ IHC were informed that weekly meetings of the sisters of Imran Khan have not been allowed since 20 March, 2025.

The former prime minister further said that after the passage of the 26th Amendment, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has been given the authority to decide the review petitions filed by the government against the reserved seats judgment of July 12, 2024.

That it was in the context of the foregoing, that a protest rally of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was subjected to unrestrained violence on 26 November 2024,” said the letter, adding that live rounds were allegedly fired on unarmed protesters resulting in “a large number of fatalities and injuries”.