- The acting CJ judge of the IHC Sarfraz Dogar leads a larger bench audience.
- The court ordered visitors to the media discussions to the visitors.
- The lawyer quotes security threats to limit meetings in one day.
Islamabad: In a sigh of relief for the ousted Prime Minister, the High Court of Islamabad (IHC) restored on Monday visit days for the incarcerated founder of Pakistan Tehreek-E-insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, allowing people to meet him every Tuesday and every Thursday.
Only people whose names are provided by the coordinator of the founder of the PTI Salman Akram Raja will be allowed to meet him.
The latest development of the legal saga concerning the rights of visit of the former Prime Minister as an acting chief of the IHC, judge Sarfraz Dogar, heard the arguments combined on the said question.
The bench of three members, which also includes judge Arbab Muhammad Tahir and judge Muhammad Azam Khan, were trained by judge Dogar last week who also merged various petitions concerning Khan’s dating rights in response to a plea deposited by prison superintendent Abdul Ghafoor Anjum.
Before today, the superintendent of Adiala prison, Anjum, using his discretionary powers, had limited the meetings of the former Prime Minister to the Tuesdays.
The question of access to the founder of PTI incarcerated has been a point of discord in recent times, various people moving the court to request permission to meet him.
The IHC, in this regard, had previously requested the virtual appearance of Khan via a video link and then ordered the authorities to produce it before the court during an audience of a plea deposited by Mashal Yousafzai de PTI.
However, the cricket player who became a politician was not produced in court with the defender General of Islamabad (AG), citing security problems as a reason.
The question also intensified after the IHC judge, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, initiated the OUO MOTU outrage procedure after cancellation of the case and transferred to another bench.
During the hearing today, prison superintendent lawyer Naveed Malik informed the court that prison meetings had been carried out under the same standard operational procedures (SOPS) until December 2024, but Khan’s status as a prisoner changed in January 2025 and this was also accompanied by security threats. According to the prison manual, meetings with the founder of the PTI were organized on Tuesday, he added.
The lawyer also declared that after January, the status of the former minister of the Great went from a prisoner under chief to a prisoner found guilty.
The acting CJ judge of the IHC pointed out that everyone submits to the requests for holding meetings inside the prison.
To this, the prison superintendent lawyer said that these meetings were used for political purposes.
The judge then questioned the need for media talks after prison meetings, saying that visitors should leave after their meeting.
“We need to get a visitors to make sure they don’t have talks with the media after meetings,” said the judge.
Meanwhile, judge Tahir said that the SOPs for meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays had been decided in the call. The prison superintendent lawyer said the two meetings were scheduled for Tuesday instead of holding meetings over two separate days due to security threats.
Lawyer Malik said that the prison period, the Superintendent of Adiala prison, has the authority. He added that in such circumstances, it is the responsibility of the superintendent to decide meetings in accordance with the rules.
During the hearing, the head of the PTI, Raja, asked the court to restore the calendar of two weekly meetings.
However, the prison superintendent lawyer argued that the management of two -day meetings was difficult, so all the meetings were organized in one day.
The IHC actor CJ noted that more than 100 petitions concerning penitentiary meetings had been tabled and that nearly 98 had been resolved. He also said they wanted the case to be settled once and for all by a larger bench.
