Shahid Khaqan being kept in death cell: family sources

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and Senior Vice President of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who has completed one month in the Adiala prison where he was consigned by an accountability court for judicial remand, but he has been lodged in a death cell with solitary confinement by defying basic human rights and in violation of the relevant laws.

He has developed numerous health problems due to lack of due care by the jail administration. He will be produced in the court today (Monday) for further proceeding as he hasn’t moved for bail or any other relief while in the jail. His family sources told The News that health of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who had already undergone two serious surgeries in recent past and facing multifarious diseases, denied by the authorities the treatment and ambiance to provide him essential for his health. The jail doctors have recommended his two further surgeries, but the authorities have been criminally ignoring the health issues of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi whose health is deteriorating at fast pace. The medical board has advised for provision of home cook food for him and jail manual also guarantee the facility since he is an under-trial detainee. The jail authorities are denying him facility of meeting with his lawyers regularly and his visitors have not been granted meeting with him.

The sources said that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi hasn’t asked for any concession and even he hasn’t moved for his bail, but his lawyers are considering applying for his bail now as the prosecution has failed in making any headway in the case against him that was lacking any credible evidence to establish his offence. He was implicated in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) case along with former federal minister for finance Miftah Ismail and former managing director Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Imran ul Haq who are also in judicial lock up. The NAB sought an extension in physical remand of the three one month ago but the court rejected the anti-graft body's request and sent them to jail on judicial remand. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi submitted a 9-page written statement to the court five weeks ago who stood behind the rostrum and told the judge that NAB had intimidated two officers of the ministry to become approvers in the case. He sarcastically asked the judge to approve NAB's request for remand last month. "It has become a banana republic. I am telling the court that there is no justice in these courts," Shahid Abbasi said who belongs to a dignified family. Since then he has been kept in the prison in inhuman atmosphere. He had requested the court to conduct an open trial so that people could know what was going on in the country. "It is political engineering", he said. The family sources said that he would again insist for an open trial that should be televised live countrywide.