Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi early on Friday called off a sit-in near Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after previously announcing he and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders will remain encamped until morning.
Afridi and several other PTI leaders reached Adiala Jail on Thursday—the day designated for meetings of friends with the party founder—and demanded access, voicing concern over reports that Khan had been treated for an eye ailment over the weekend without any communication to his family.
Upon being denied a meeting with Khan, Afridi announced he would stage a sit-in near the jail until morning, after which the PTI would announce its next plan of action. “We will stage a sit-in tonight. MNAs and MPAs of our party are arriving,” he told media on Thursday evening. “This is our leader’s matter, we will not let it go like this,” he said, alleging the government was attempting to “deliberately” worsen conditions.
The KP chief minister demanded that Khan’s family and personal physician be granted access to the former prime minister so they could assure the party’s followers he was in good health. He also warned that if the matter was not resolved, the government would be responsible for whatever situation emerged in the aftermath.
Also present at the sit-in was PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who said a petition has been filed in the trial court seeking permission to meet the party founder in jail. Describing reports of the eye condition “worrying,” he recalled that Khan’s personal physician had not reported any such ailment when he last met him a year ago.
“A whole year has passed, no one knows what happened in the meantime,” he claimed, vowing that he would approach the Supreme Court to seek a meeting.