The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday filed a plea before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking the transfer of party chief Imran Khan from Attock Jail to Adiala Jail, adding his “education, habits and social and political status” entitled him to ‘A-class’ facilities in jail.
“Since childhood, the petitioner is from an affluent family, and later due to his education, habits, and social and political status in the society, has got accustomed to a better mode of life,” read the petition, while specifically referring to Khan’s past captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team and his graduation from the Oxford University, U.K.
Citing Rule 243, read with Rule 248 of the Pakistan Prison Rules, it said he was entitled to ‘A-Class’ facilities while in detention. According to the prison rules, ‘A-Class’ facilities provide convicts with books and a newspaper of choice, as well as a 21-inch television, a table and a chair, a mattress, personal bedding and clothing and food. The prisoner is required to pay for these facilities out of their own pocket, but is assured security in a high-security ward and an individual cell.
A-Class prisoners can further supplement furniture with other articles, within reasonable limits, including a table lamp. They also have access to a private washroom. They can further be provided with ‘C class’ prisoners to serve as their chef and attendant, respectively.
The petition filed through Khan’s attorney Naeem Haider Panjotha alleges that Khan is being kept in a “small cell” of 9 x 11 feet with a “dirty” annexed washroom. It has also sought access to Khan by his legal team, personal physician and family members. “Moreover, Dr. Faisal Sultan is the physician of the petitioner for 25 years and is aware of the entire medical history of the petitioner,” it says, noting that previous injuries such as “a fall in 2013” and an attempted assassination in Wazirabad last year necessitated that Dr. Sultan be granted permission to meet his patient.
The PTI’s petition also requests the court to declare Khan’s stay in Attock jail “illegal,” maintaining he should be moved to Adiala Jail as noted in the ruling finding him guilty of “corrupt” practices.
Khan was arrested on Aug. 5 after a district and sessions court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana scandal and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of Rs. 100,000 and disqualification from holding public office for five years. The former prime minister was then arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore and shifted to Islamabad, where he was moved to Attock Jail.
Khan’s lawyer was allowed to meet him in prison at 12 p.m. on Monday after prison authorities refused to grant an earlier meeting. Authorities have also rubbished claims by the legal team that Attock Jail lacks ‘B Class’ facilities, saying the PTI chief has been shifted to a better room after initially being housed in ‘C Class’ facilities upon his arrival at the prison.
Earlier, PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi had issued a statement demanding Khan’s “immediate release.”