A Rawalpindi court on Monday rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan’s plea for weekly WhatsApp calls with his sons, ARY News reported.
It is noteworthy that Imran Khan had filed a petition seeking permission to talk to his sons once a week through WhatsApp.
However, the jail administration said that there is no legal provision that allows prisoners to talk to their relatives via WhatsApp. According to ARY News, the court had earlier said that Imran be allowed to talk to his children, who currently live in the UK with their mother Jemima Khan, twice a month.
Earlier, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan had filed a petition in the Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), after which he was not allowed to talk to his sons over the phone from Adiala Jail. In the petition, the PTI founder argued that he has been forbidden from talking to his sons, while he is allowed to do so under the law.
The ATC, headed by Judge Malik Aijaz Asif, had sought a response from the jail administration, ARY News reported.
Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court a day earlier reserved its verdict on Imran Khan’s interim bail pleas in the 2023 cases linked to the May 9 incidents, including the Jinnah House and two other cases, reports Pakistan-based The Express Tribune.
During the hearing on Saturday, Imran’s lawyer Barrister Salman Safdar argued that the PTI founder was being targeted for political reasons.
Safdar alleged, “In my entire career I have never seen so many cases against a single person. Those who were actually inciting against the institutions were not arrested.” The PTI chief’s lawyer questioned, “How can a case be registered against him when he was in custody at the time of the crime?”
In response, the public prosecutor argued that according to the Special Branch report, Imran Khan had asked his followers to target civilian and military installations if he was arrested. “These incidents took place as a result of instructions to attack military installations across Pakistan,” the prosecutor said. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court reserved its verdict on the PTI founder’s interim bail plea, The Express Tribune reported.
Violent clashes broke out across Pakistan following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9 last year. As anger among party workers over Mr Khan’s arrest led to protests in remote and major cities, armed forces were called in to maintain law and order in Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad, reports ARY News.
During the protest by PTI workers, army establishments including the house of the Corps Commander were attacked in Lahore. It is worth mentioning that the PTI founder was made the main accused in all the cases of the riots that took place on 9 May.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
