KP CM Afridi ends Adiala Road sit-in, says no update on Pakistan ex-PM Imran’s health

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has called off the 16-hour-long protest sit-in on Adiala Road Rawalpindi that he staged to protest against denying a meeting with his jailed leader former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran khan.

Afridi also protested that officials have yet to share any updates on the condition of Imran Khan. He told reporters at the Gorkhpur checkpoint that he and party workers remained at the demonstration site throughout the night between Thursday and Friday.

“We spent the night here with the workers — this was only one night,” he said, adding, “If we have to spend our whole lives here for the PTI founder, we will do so. We have not yet been told anything about the condition of the PTI founder.

The chief minister said that they would not back down from their demands. “We will not retreat from our protests and sit-ins,” he asserted.

Afridi said he has used “all constitutional and legal options” in an attempt to meet the PTI founder, but to no avail. “I have used every constitutional and legal path. What route is left for me to meet my leader?” he asked and said that despite a court order, neither he nor other party leaders were allowed to meet Imran.

Criticising the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he said, “Previously, those who would flee to London were allowed to meet groups of 50 people (in jail) at a time.”

In a statement shared by the PTI, Imran’s son Kasim Khan also called on the international community and global human rights organisations to intervene and “demand proof of life, enforce court-ordered access, end this inhumane isolation” faced by his father.

Mahmood Achakzai, head of the Tehrik Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, Mishal Yousufzai, Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Rubina Naz, and MNA Zulfiqar Ahmed and others attended the sit-in.

Achakzai told reporters that the chief minister arrived in Rawalpindi with the belief that, as a representative of a federating unit, he would be allowed to meet his party leader — particularly after obtaining a court directive.

“Afridi was under the impression that he is a constitutional representative of the federation. He thought that since the court had put it in writing, he would be granted a meeting with his leader,” Achakzai said. “But he has now realised that those in charge here do not respect democratic norms or the language of honour.”

Earlier, Sohail Afridi has announced that the PTI has decided that its members of the national and provincial assemblies and the Senate would hold a peaceful protest outside the Islamabad High Court IHC) every Tuesday for delays in hearing the cases against Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

“After the peaceful protest outside the IHC until 1pm, lawmakers will march on Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi along with Imran Khan’s sisters and sit outside the jail,” Afridi told PTI workers during a ceremony to “pay tribute to the PTI workers martyred on Nov.26, 2024.”

He requested PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja to ensure the presence of all party members of the national and provincial assemblies and the Senate outside the high court on Tuesdays.

The chief minister also urged party workers to “ensure their elected representatives are present at the protest.” “Wherever you [workers] are, make sure all your respective federal and provincial lawmakers are present at the peaceful protest. We’ll shame absent lawmakers afterward.”

Afridi said that those, who won elections in the name of the incarcerated prime minister Imran Khan to become parliamentarians, would protest to ensure justice is dispensed to the leader facing torture in the jail.

He said the party’s peaceful movement for the release of Imran Khan would continue and he himself would visit Adiala Jail on every Thursday until he met the detained leader.

Afridi announced that a political gathering would be held in the provincial capital on December 7. He said that Nov.26 was a painful day for PTI as its peaceful workers were fired at, martyred and wounded at D-Chowk in Islamabad.