Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan is in good health, his sister Uzma Khan confirmed on Tuesday after meeting him at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail following weeks of denied meeting that had triggered rumors of his declining health.
Neither the PTI nor his family were permitted to meet the former prime minister since Nov. 4, leading to the party announcing protests seeking the meeting. Several hundred PTI supporters gathered outside Adiala Jail on Tuesday ahead of the meeting, which was eventually granted to just Uzma, while Khan’s remaining family members were once again turned away.
Updating media on the meeting later, Uzma said her brother was in good health but was “furious,” as he claimed he was being “mentally tortured” through solitary confinement. She said the 30-minute meeting had not gone into depth on pending issues, but noted Khan had said Hamid Khan and Salman Akram Raja would select the PTI’s candidates for upcoming bar council elections and the party would support their decision.
She said the former prime minister had also expressed dismay at the delay in the notification of Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir as opposition leaders in the National Assembly and Senate, respectively, and demanded the PTI support their appointments. Khan, she said, had also voiced approval of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi’s tenure and urged him to continue “playing on the front-foot.” She said Khan had said the Constitution and law cannot solely apply to the PTI.
Another of Khan’s sisters, Aleema, said the family had decided it would stage protests every week if six family members were not allowed to meet him every Tuesday and six party leaders every Thursday. She maintained court orders had already approved these meetings, and lamented that her brother was kept in “solitary confinement” for a month.
“Meeting our brother is our legal and constitutional right,” she added.
Official account
In a post shared on his official X account, which he does not have access to at Adiala Jail, Khan blamed Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir for his imprisonment and “mental torture.” He claimed he was kept “unaware” of the outside world for the past month.
Reiterating his call for the nation to “rise up itself,” he warned the “true freedom” could not be achieved until the “chains of slavery” were broken. He also lashed out at party leaders who recently attending a National Defense University workshop, declaring them “traitors” whose actions had “pained” him.
Khan accused the Army chief of seeking conflict with Afghanistan, alleging that the expulsion of Afghan refugees and drone strikes had led to an increase in terrorism across Pakistan. “This person has sacrificed the country to terrorism for his personal interests,” read the social media port.
Praising the KP chief minister, he said he fully supported him in “whatever” he was doing. He also directed the PTI’s parliamentary party to protest before the speaker and Senate chairman over the delay in the notification of opposition leaders. “In addition, for any movement against the current system, whatever call is given by Tehreek Tahafuz Ayin Pakistan, all of PTI must act on it,” he added.
“I am resigning from the Political Committee of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf today—party Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has full authority, he should form a new short committee that devises political strategy and ensures its implementation,” he said and nominated Shahid Khattak as the PTI’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly.
The PTI founder has been in jail since August 2023 and is currently serving out a 10-year prison term. Government officials have defended the denial of meetings as necessary to ensure security amidst resurgent terrorism. They have also alleged that people who meeting Khan discuss political issues with him in violation of Prison Rules.