Islamabad:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) has taken the alarm on what he described as “inhuman” treatment of his imprisoned founder, Imran Khan, saying that he is detained 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 it is forbidden to meet his legal team and close partners.
Akram said the conditions constitute 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 said.
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.
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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,” he noted.
The PTI spokesperson has also questioned the recent disqualification of politician Jamshed Dasti, affirming that article 62, paragraph 1) (d) of the Constitution, has never been used before to dislodge public representatives, and alleging that constitutional provisions are now poorly applied for political engineering.
Stressing the concerns about the health and treatment of other managers of the PTI held, he underlined the “deterioration condition” of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the “systematic violation” of Dr. Yasmin Rashid’s rights, and the continuous imprisonment of Ejaz Chaudhry despite the ordinances of the Supreme Court granting a deposit.
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, petrol prices increased by RS51, but the current government abandoned subsidies and pushed the price to Rs220 per liter,” he said.
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He also accused the government of orchestrating a sugar scandal of 92 billion rupees, alleging that after the approval of exporting 765,000 metric tonnes of sugar, interior supplies have disappeared from the market, raising prices to Rs200 per kilogram.
Addressing the affairs of May 9, Akram said that the position of the accusation collapsed following the withdrawal of a key investigator and the absence of main witness Hassan Afzal. He demanded the immediate rejection of all related affairs.
Expressing the sadness of the recent floods in Punjab which led to 103 deaths and the destruction of 250 houses, Akram criticized what he described as the government’s incompetent disaster response. “When the public demonstrations, they are imprisoned. However, the officials responsible for this negligence remain unpunished,” he said.
In closing, Akram revealed that Khan had sent directives concerning the next elections in the Senate to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, delegating the authority for the allocation of provincial parliamentary party tickets to prevent horse trade.
However, he said that no ticket can be issued without Khan’s personal approval. “The PTI remains attached to internal democracy and transparency,” he said.
