Ban on Adiala meetings ends

Imran, other leaders will be able to receive visitors from today

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD:

The two-week restriction on visiting prisoners, including PTI founding chairman Imran Khan, in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail came to end on Wednesday.

In view of security concerns, the Punjab government issued a notification on March 12 banning visitations in Adiala jail for 14 days.

After the completion of this period, the visitations will be able to start in Adiala jail from Thursday.

Two weeks ago, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and police on a tip-off foiled an attack near Adiala jail by conducting a joint operation as well as arrested highly-trained terrorists.

The terrorists were planning to target important facilities including Adiala jail. Besides, two threatening calls were made to the official phone numbers of the prison.

Adiala jail Superintendent Asad Javed Warraich confirmed to The Express Tribune that the restriction period had come to an end.

He added that Imran; PTI vice chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, party president and ex-Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as well as all the other prisoners in the jail would be able to meet with their visitors as per the normal standard operating procedures from Thursday.

The jail official continued that the inmates would be able to receive food and other goods from their visitors.

In a related development, the Punjab additional advocate general told the Islamabad High Court that the notification banning visits to the inmates of Adiala jail for 14 days had become ineffective.

IHC’s Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir was hearing a plea against the ban on meeting the PTI founding chairman and deposed premier in jail.

The Adiala jail authorities submitted their report to the court containing the details of the cases against Imran and other inmates. It further stated that there was a capacity of 2,200 prisoners in Adiala jail, where over 7,000 criminals and under-trial inmates were imprisoned.

The report added that 3,100 of them belonged to Islamabad.

On the judge’s query, the Islamabad chief commissioner sought time to submit a report on the issue of the arrangement under which the prisoners of Islamabad were kept in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.