Jailed Imran again denied family meeting — this time with his cousin as sisters remain in detention

ISLAMABAD: Ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s cousin, Qasim Zaman, reached Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on Tuesday but was not allowed a meeting with the PTI founder, Awais Younas Chaudhry, a PTI lawyer told Dawn.

“We reached there at around 2pm and waited until after 4pm, but a meeting was not allowed,” he said.

Imran has been in prison since 2023. The IHC has allowed Imran twice-a-week meetings — on Tuesdays and Thursdays — with his family, lawyers and other associates. Despite the order, the PTI founder has been restricted from meeting visitors.

Usually, Imran’s sisters — Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi — would be the ones to reach Adiala every week in the hopes to meet him. But they have now been detained by the authorities under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 ahead of the PTI’s Sept 27 protest call.

Chaudhry, who submits lists of party leaders and lawyers to the jail administration for the weekly meetings, said in response to a question by Dawn that had no one from Imran’s family had reached Adiala, the jail administration would have argued before the IHC that the meeting did not take place because nobody came. They would have argued that otherwise, a meeting would have been allowed.

On Monday, he said the PTI had decided that with Imran’s sisters detained, some other family members would reach Adiala on Tuesday to show IHC that its orders were not being implemented. However, he had not shared the names of those family members, fearing their arrest.

He had also submitted a list of lawyers for a meeting with Imran. The list comprised PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan, Niazullah Niazi, Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry, Raja Yasir and Malik Atif Bashir Awan.

Chaudhry said these lawyers also reached the Adiala jail on Tuesday and informed authorities of their arrival, but, despite hours of waiting, they had to return without a meeting.

On Aug 18, the Supreme Court (SC) also directed the authorities to allow Imran meetings with his family as it ordered his medical checkup at Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital, a private facility.

After the SC’s interim order, one of Imran’s sisters, Noreen, was allowed two consecutive meetings with him. But there has been no other meetings since her last one on August 25.