Govt to shift Imran to Banigala if PTI applies: minister

ISLAMABAD: In a goodwill gesture, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Wednesday offered to shift Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s incarcerated leader Imran Khan from Adiala Jail to his residence in Banigala, provided an application is filed.

Speaking on a private TV channel, the minister stated that the PTI founder currently meets with his entire family and lawyers in jail without any restrictions. “If there is any obstacle in meeting him, we will review it. We are ready to shift the PTI founder to Banigala; his party should apply,” he remarked.

“We will definitely shift him, and he may meet people, play ludo, or whatever he wants to do. We want the PTI founder to meet political people,” he maintained.

Chaudhry added that first-class exercise machines had been provided to the jailed former prime minister.

However, former senator and vice-chairman of the Tehreek Tahafuz Aiyeen e Pakistan, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, reacted to the minister’s offer by stating that neither the federal nor the Punjab government has the authority to do so.

He claimed that even if Ahmad Awais (a PTI lawyer also on the show) were to write an application on the party’s behalf, the minister would simply fax it to Rawalpindi. To this, the minister quipped, “Where else should the application go, as Adiala Jail is in Rawalpindi?”

When The News approached PTI Information Secretary Sh Waqas Akram for his reaction to the offer, he played it down and said when a prime minister phones Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM to congratulate him and when he tells him about his desire to meet his leader in the jail, and in return he (PM) says, “men apko pooch k bataunga”. Then, Waqas added, how one could take the minister’s offer made in a TV talk show as serious one. He emphasised that Imran neither believed in deal nor will any such application be filed; his leader had talked about his rights as a prisoner.