After his conviction and detention in a corruption case, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been held in a small bug-infested cell with an open lavatory at the high-security Attock jail in Punjab province.
According to Khan’s attorney, Naeem Haider Panjotha, the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman has been given ‘C-class’ treatment at the Punjab province jail. He claimed that the detention cell where the former captain of the country’s world champion cricket team is being detained is filled with flies and cockroaches.
Panjotha asserted after meeting Khan in prison on Monday that he is in a small room with an open toilet. “The PTI chairman says he is prepared to spend his entire life in jail,” the lawyer was quoted as saying. Panjotha added that Khan told him that while they were at his Lahore home, police did not present him with a warrant for arrest and attempted to smash the door of his wife’s room.
The lawyer met Khan for an hour and 45 minutes in the presence of a jail official to obtain his signatures on legal paper in preparation for filing appeals against Khan’s conviction. According to the lawyer, Khan informed him that he was being held in a dark room with an open toilet, which was frequented by flies during the day and ants at night.
“I have been kept in a dark room with no television or newspaper available. Nobody is allowed to meet me as if I am a terrorist,” Panjotha quoted Khan as saying. Khan was arrested from his Lahore residence, just after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three years in prison.
Despite a court ruling directing authorities to send him to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, he was transferred to Attock jail in Punjab province. Khan’s political career has been jeopardised as a result of the court verdict, reports state. The decision comes as Pakistan prepares for general elections later this year, with the current National Assembly slated to finish its term on August 12.
The politician-turned-cricketer is accused of illegally selling state gifts for a profit of USD 497,500. Khan has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he purchased the items legitimately from Toshakhana, a government-owned treasure house. Khan has been detained for the second time in three months.
Previously, on May 9, he was arrested in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, provoking violent protests from his followers. Imran Khan is also charged with terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption, and murder in over 140 incidents across the country.
