The federal government on Thursday ruled out further meetings for Uzma Khanum and others who violated the prison code by meeting PTI founder Imran Khan.
Uzma met the party’s founder in prison on Tuesday after weeks of efforts. The meeting took place as rumors about Imran’s health began to circulate in local and foreign media, despite claims by the government and PTI leaders that the former prime minister was in good health.
These speculations, however, gained traction due to the government’s reluctance to allow visitors, including his relatives and legal team, to meet Imran over the past few weeks. Later, Uzma detailed Imran’s instructions to the party on political and other matters.
In a press conference with Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar about the entire situation, the Information Minister announced: “There is no place in the [prison] rules for political discussions and political discussions were reported to have occurred, so gatherings are now prohibited for Uzma Khan. This will not happen.”
He added that reports of instigation against the State and its officials had emerged. “Gatherings are prohibited for anyone who violates the rules,” Attaullah said, adding that it was wrong for people to hold gatherings and then promote “Indian and Afghan stances and orchestrate publications against the army and its chief.”
The minister added that an opportunity was given and now “the meeting has been prohibited for whoever committed the violation.”
Attaullah said the government would not tolerate any more violations and would treat anyone who did so with an iron fist.
“There is no place for a circus.”
The Minister of Justice also said that the prison rules for allowing gatherings were the same as always and set out specific provisions containing restrictions on how they should be carried out.
PTI Central Secretary Information Sheikh Waqas Akram lashed out at what he described as “political clowns and puppets” for their “relentless campaign” against Imran and his family.
He said the attack “exposes the sheer desperation of the imposed and petrified regime to divert public attention from the chronic crises facing the country as a result of its short-sighted, short-sighted and selfish policies.”
The PTI spokesperson expressed astonishment that Sharif’s “courtiers and political pawns” were now “presuming to distribute certificates of patriotism and nationalism”, even though, he said, it was they themselves who received Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Jati Umra and attended his family’s wedding functions.
Akram emphasized that the PTI founder never hosted any Pakistani adversary in Bani Gala, nor did he establish business ties with anti-Pakistan elements. He alleged that it was only the Sharif dynasty that compromised the interests of the country and the State for its personal and commercial gains, showing little regard for the nation itself.
He made it clear that “the false and invented rhetoric of the imposed regime” was nothing more than a “desperate attempt to divert the attention of the media and the public, while selfish sycophants have plunged the country into the whirlwinds of economic, political, social and constitutional crises.”
Akram said that “disinformation minister Atta Tarar’s press conference was completely devoid of facts, driven by panic and full of political vendetta”, adding that it was a reflection of the ruling circle’s “fear” and what he called “Imran Khan phobia”.
He promised that the “daily circus of pranksters” unleashed to spew venom against Imran and the PTI might pollute the political atmosphere, but could no longer fool a nation that was now wide awake, fully aware of the real culprits and how state power was being used as a weapon for revenge.
Commenting on the government’s claims of providing all facilities to Imran, the PTI spokesperson claimed that the PTI patron-in-chief was kept in arbitrary detention in solitary confinement death cell conditions and was denied all rights as per jail rules.
He also criticized the “hybrid regime” for repeatedly denying meetings between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and Imran, denying him access to personal doctors and preventing his children from speaking to him for several months.
Akram claimed that the uproar was a clear reflection that Imran remained a nightmare for them, to the extent that they could not even sleep peacefully due to their “fear”.
He vowed that neither the nation’s leader nor the now awakened public would allow these “fraudulently imposed rulers” to escape responsibility for their crimes.
The PTI spokesperson stated that the days of this “cabal of criminals” were numbered and that the public would soon punish them for their “transgressions, corruption, theft of public mandate and tyranny.”
Akram reaffirmed that Imran and his party, along with the nation, would continue their just fight to defend democracy, rule of law, constitutional supremacy and independence of judiciary.
