PTI moves IHC for meetings with Imran, claims several injured after police scuttle rally in Pindi

ISLAMABAD: The PTI on Tuesday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking a court permission to meet the incarcerated leader Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in Adiala jail besides an order by the court for an end to their illegal solitary confinement.

On the other hand, Punjab police resorted to baton-charge to disperse a protest of PTI in Rawalpindi after the former ruling party ended its sit-in outside the prison and announced a rally in the garrison city. According to a statement issued by PTI on X in the small hours of Thursday, police action led to multiple arrests and injuries.

A total of around 17 senators, including Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, had moved the high court through Article 199 of the Constitution, making the Punjab Home Department and the superintendent of the Adiala jail respondents.

The application of illegal and unconstitutional solitary confinement and other inhumane practices against the Petitioners, Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi, was challenged before the Court during their incarceration. It was submitted in the petition that continuous solitary confinement is torture and a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Barrister Zafar said the senators approa­ched the court in discharge of their constitutional duty of parliamentary oversight and to safeguard human dignity and the rule of law.

The petition maintained Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi had been kept in prolonged isolation for the last two months without any judicial order or statutory justification under the Pakistan Penal Code or the Prisons Act.

It alleged denial of basic prisoner entitlements, including access to books, news­­papers, TV, family visits, and confidential meetings with counsel, as well as the arbitrary refusal to allow lawmakers to meet them.