IHC resumes twice-a-week meetings with PTI founder at Adiala Jail

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday resumed twice a week meetings with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan at Adiala Jail. 

A larger bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Justice Muhammad Azam heard the petitions related to the PTI founder’s jail meetings.

Lawyer of Adiala Jail Superintendent told the court that jail meetings were being held under the same SOPs till December, after January the status changed as there were security threats.

The lawyer said that according to the jail manual, the PTI founder was allowed two meetings in a week on Tuesday. After January, the PTI founder’s status changed to convicted prisoner from an undertrial prisoner.

The acting Chief Justice said that every person comes with a request that he should also be allowed meeting in jail. To which, the lawyer jail superintendent said that they use jail meetings for political purposes.

Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir remarked that the SOPs of Tuesday and Thursday’s meeting had been fixed in the appeal, on which lawyer Naveed Malik said that due to security threats, we had held two meetings on Tuesday instead of two days.

Salman Akram Raja said that our request is that the process of weekly two meetings should be restored. To which, the lawyer of jail superintendent said it is difficult to manage for two days as we are holding all the meetings on one day.

The acting chief justice said that more than 100 petitions of jail meetings have been filed and around 98 have been disposed of.

The Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court said that what is the need for media talk after the jail meeting? They should meet and go away. Take the undertaking from them so that they do not talk to the media after the jail meeting, he observed.