Islamabad:
The PTI has taken the alarm on what it describes as a “inhuman” treatment of its imprisoned founder, Imran Khan, claiming that he is held in a “death cell” under almost total isolation.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, the central PTI information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, allegedly alleged that Khan was confined to solitary detention for 22 hours a day, refused access to newspapers, television, books and was forbidden to meet his legal team and close partners.
Akram said that conditions constitute a psychological torture and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights. “Imran Khan is actually cut off from the world. His fundamental right to meet six designated persons is refused despite explicit judicial orders, which constitute an outrage in court.”
He added that similar restrictions were imposed on the wife of Khan, Bushra Bibi, who would be refused family visits, while Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, was also prevented from seeing him.
Invoking the chief judge of Pakistan to intervene, Akram urged the judiciary to restore his “credibility and his independence in decline” in the face of what he called the open challenge of court decisions by the executive. “The violation of judicial orders is not only an insult to the courts but to the entire judicial system.”
The PTI spokesman also questioned the recent disqualification of the politician Jamshed Dasti, affirming that article 62, paragraph 1) (d) of the Constitution, has never been used before to overthrow public representatives and alleging that the constitutional provisions were now poorly applied for political engineering.
Stressing the concerns about the health and treatment of other managers of the PTI detained, Akram underlined the “deterioration condition” of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the “systematic violation” of the rights of Dr. Yasmin Rashid, and the continuous imprisonment of Ejaz Chaudhry despite the ordinances of the Supreme Court which granted him.
On economic issues, Akram has criticized the federal government on the rush of fuel prices, saying that gasoline prices have jumped 82% in the last 15 months. “During PTI’s mandate, gasoline prices increased from Rs. 51, but the current government abandoned the subsidies and pushed the price to Rs. 220 per liter,” he said. He also accused the government of orchestrating an Rs. 92 billion sugar scandals, alleging that following approval to export 765,000 metric tonnes of sugar, the interior supplies have disappeared from the market, sending prices to be soared to Rs. 200 per kilogram.
Addressing May 9 affairs, Akram said that the position of the accusation collapsed following the withdrawal of a key investigator.
