Pakistan's former PM Imran Khan granted permission to talks with sons from jail

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

The special court on Wednesday directed the Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail superintendent to allow incarcerated former prime minister and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to get in touch with his sons (Qasim and Suleiman), on a telephone call.

The court instructed the superintendent of Adiala jail to facilitate the contact through WhatsApp. During the hearing, special court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain heard the petition seeking directives to jail officials to allow the PTI chief to contact his sons.

The judge then allowed the phone call to “family members” after observing that “the agonies of the family cannot [be] kept isolated.”

On Aug.30, the special court had directed the Attock Jail superintendent to make arrangements for a phone call between the PTI chief and his sons.

Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has submitted in the court a list of 28 witnesses in the cypher case against Imran and PTI’s Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

A special court established under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923, to try the case inside Adiala Jail Rawalpindi will indict the accused on Oct.23.

The cypher case pertains to a document waved by Imran Khan, the then prime minister, at a public rally in March last year, terming it as evidence of a foreign conspiracy behind the no-confidence motion he faced at that time.

The motion was carried a few weeks later, leading to the end of Imran’s government. According to the charge-sheet papers, both Imran and Qureshi, who was the foreign minister at that time, have been declared as accused.

Imran was accused of violating the prime minister’s oath by revealing the cypher at a public rally on March 27, 2022, and in the national and international media. The papers allege that Imran misused the state secret, while Qureshi assisted him by delivering a speech at the same March 27 rally.

The CD of Imran and Qureshi’s speeches at the rally and their transcript have been attached to the challan.

The prosecution has requested the court to punish both accused. In addition, the charge-sheet contains a list of 28 witnesses, along with the statements of 27 witnesses, including Azam Khan, who was the principal secretary to the then prime minister Imran, recorded under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

These papers said that Azam Khan said in his statement that Imran Khan hatched a plan against the army high command for political purposes, intending to pressure the institutions to help him defeat the no-confidence motion.