The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday restored incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan\u2019s visitation rights twice a week.<\/p>\n
The IHC administration had constituted a three-member larger bench \u2014 headed by newly appointed Acting Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar \u2014 to hear all 26 petitions related to the visitation rights and jail conditions of Imran.<\/p>\n
The bench, led by Justice Dogar and including Justices Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Muhammad Azam Khan, heard the petition.<\/p>\n
All 26 petitions \u2014 including the contempt of court applications against Adiala Jail Superintendent Abdul Ghafoor Anjum \u2014 were transferred to the larger bench on the Adiala Jail official\u2019s request, which cited logistical challenges in appearing before multiple benches.<\/p>\n
The hearing
\nDuring today\u2019s hearing, Imran\u2019s counsel Zaheer Abbas said that the PTI founder was scheduled to meet his family and lawyers on Tuesday and his friends on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs per SOPs [standard operating procedures], our meeting was not held on March 20,\u201d Abbas said.<\/p>\n
Justice Dogar observed that this was a small matter, which had been settled in the intra-court appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs per SOPs, our meeting on Thursday is not being held,\u201d PTI Secretary General Barrister Salman Akram Raja reiterated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SOPs for Tuesday and Thursday meetings were fixed in the appeal,\u201d Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir noted.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Advocate Nav\u00adeed Malik representing the jail superintendent argued that the meetings were being held twice a week until December up to Imran and Bushra Bibi\u2019s conviction in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe status of the founder of PTI has changed after being convicted in jail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further said that the two meetings were held on Tuesday instead of two days because of security threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the jail rules, the superintendent of Adiala Jail has the authority [to schedule the meetings accordingly],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Naveed Malik alleged that the PTI leaders misused the privilege of the meetings and made political statements outside Adiala jail.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the meeting, they come outside the jail and make political statements \u2014 this is a violation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Acting IHC CJ Dogar questioned Malik, \u201cYou are saying that, instead of holding two meetings for two days, you are holding two meetings in one day?\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat contended that \u201call these things were settled in the appeal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalman Akram Raja is the coordinator, we will listen to him,\u201d the acting chief justice remarked, adding that \u201cevery person comes with a request to meet [Imran] in jail\u201d.<\/p>\n
Malik reiterated that PTI leaders used the meetings for \u201cpolitical purposes\u201d, adding that 98 applications had been disposed of on the topic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had implemented it, 98 applications would not have been filed,\u201d Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir retorted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the need for media talk after jail meeting? Just have the meeting and leave,\u201d Justice Dogar remarked. \u201cWe take an undertaking from them that they will not talk to the media after jail meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a small matter, instead of one day, they want to meet for two days \u2014 think about it,\u201d the acting chief justice told Lawyer Naveed Malik.<\/p>\n
Barrister Naveed Malik stated that they could arrange meetings twice a week if they provided assurances \u201cthat they will not come out and have political discussions\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he added that the jail authorities request was \u201cthat only one day be kept for the meetings\u201d.<\/p>\n
Justice Dogar remarked that senior counsel Salman Akram Raja had assured them that there would be no political discussions outside Adiala jail after the meetings.<\/p>\n
Senior counsel Salman Akram Raja contended that there were no meetings held after October.<\/p>\n
The court ordered that only the coordinator of the incarcerated PTI founder would name those allowed to meet, adding that \u201cnot everyone can come with a request for a meeting\u201d.<\/p>\n
It added that there would no media talks after the meetings.<\/p>\n
With regards to arranging a meeting between Imran and his children, Justice Dogar ordered them to \u201capply to the trial court\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday restored incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan\u2019s visitation rights twice a week. The IHC administration had constituted a three-member larger bench \u2014 headed by newly appointed Acting Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar \u2014 to hear all 26 petitions related to the visitation rights and jail conditions of Imran. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7353,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7351\/revisions\/7353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}