Rawalpindi:
The members of the close family of the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf, Imran Khan, along with activists and followers of the party, were briefly arrested and then released on Tuesday after protesting the denial of their meeting with him in Adiala Cail.
Among the detainees were Imran’s sister, Aleema Khan, her cousin Qasim Niazi, the leader of PTI Punjab, Alia Hamza, and the head of the Sunita Ittehad (sic) Hamid race and others. The protesters organized a sitting during which some PTI activists dedicated themselves to the stone fight.
The Adiala prison administration and Punjab Minister of Information, Bokhari Azma, rejected the claims of PTI leaders, calling them directly. They said that the family was already allowed to meet Imran Khan, along with his wife, Bushra Bibi, according to the scheduled plan.
According to the calendar, Imran is expected to meet with their lawyers and relatives every Tuesday. The tensions intensified when three of Imran’s sisters, their cousin Qasim Niazi, Alia Hamza, Hamid Raza and eight women activists organized a protest against prison officials for not allowing them to meet with the founder of PTI.
Speaking on this occasion, Aleema Khan said she did not understand why they were not allowed to meet with her brother. “Three weeks have passed; they don’t let us meet with Khan. Even today, the police have been deployed so we can’t know him,” he said.
She said they had come from Lahore for the meeting. “Today is the day of our meeting, today is lawyers’ day and we hope that lawyers will find it.” After three hours of the protest, they were put in a police truck and moved away.
Those rounded by the police included Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan, three sisters of Imran Khan, her cousin Qasim Niazi, in addition to Alia Hamza, and eight female activists. Police took them to a local wedding room and released them after 9 pm.
On the information about the protests of the sisters of the founder of PTI, several party workers gathered near Adiala Road and began to sing slogans. The opposition leader of the National Assembly, Omar Ayub, and the legislators, including Sartaj Gul, also joined the protesters to express solidarity.
When addressing the protesters, Ayub said the judges should decide whether they would implement their orders. He added that the founder of PTI would not ask for any agreement or seek indulgence. “According to the law, a prisoner also has rights,” he said.
The member of the National Assembly of PTI, Sartaj Gul, said that the solution to the problems facing the country was not to portray the PTI as a terrorist. “Everyone knows that Imran Khan is innocent. We are standing here peacefully. We ask him to allow the family to meet and end this crisis.”
The protesters threw stones at the police while they were being rounded. During the protest, a stone hit Mian Azhar, father of the leader of PTI, Hammad Azhar. Mian Azhar was slightly injured and was taken to a hospital. Later, the protesters were released by the police in guarantees of Ayub.
Meanwhile, the president of the PTI, the lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, condemned the “illegal and unconstitutional” arrest of the three sisters of Imran. He said that the meeting with the founder of PTI was the right of his sisters, adding that he was also ordered by a bank of three members of the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC).
“It is incomprehensible why the sisters are not allowed to meet the founder of PTI. What is the problem in this?” Gohar asked. “Just when Bushra Bibi’s family was allowed to meet, Imran’s family should also be allowed to meet him.
Meanwhile, lawyer Gohar and Senator of PTI Ali Zafar, and six other party leaders visited Imran in jail. During the meeting, according to the sources, the founder of PTI depended his full confidence in Alia Hamza and gave him the authority to make decisions about the PTI Punjab chapter.
Hamza will be authorized to suspend any official and assign responsibility, the sources said, he added that the founder of PTI addressed the president of the Barrimer Gohar party to issue a notification about the responsibility of Alia Hamza.
Outside the facilities of the prison, the leader of PTI, Mishal Yousafzai, dedicated himself to the altercation with Gohar after he was not allowed to meet Imran. She said she was among the list of those people, who were scheduled to meet the founder of PTI.
The lawyer Gohar, however, replied that the list, referred to her, was false. However, Yousafzai insisted that the list given to the prison authorities for Salman Akram Raja was not false and added that lawyer Gohar and lawyer Ali Zafar were not on that list, but the meeting was allowed.
Posture of prison authorities
Later, Adial prison authorities said that the founder of PTI and his wife were allowed to meet their relatives and lawyers, while the founder of PTI had also been allowed to speak with their children, Qasim Khan and Suleman Khan, by phone through WhatsApp.
The members of the Meherunnisa family, Mubashara Sheikh also met with Bushra Bibi, while lawyer Ali Zafar advocated Gohar Ali Khan, a lawyer from Zaheer Abbas, defender of Mubashar Maqsood, lawyer of Razia Sultan, lawyer of Ali Imran also met with Imra, they said in a statement.
“The meetings of the PTI founder with Bushra Bibi in jail are held regularly. A false propaganda and without the foundation that the meeting was not allowed to be aimed at the score of political points and nothing more. The jail administration strongly denies the news without foundation.”
In Lahore, Punjab Minister of Information, Azma Bokhari, firmly denied the reports on the arrest of the sisters of the founder of PTI. She said Aleema Khan and her teammates voluntarily approached a police truck and then landed on their own at the Khawaja service station.
“Aleema Khan and the other women essentially used the Punjab police vehicle as an” Uber service, “Bokhari said, added that the truth behind this drama had been exposed through social networks and video images.” This whole act of the Fitna group was a failed attempt to generate sympathy. “
(With additional contributions from our Lahore correspondent)
