A special court granted permission to Pakistan‘s former prime minister Imran Khan – currently lodged at Attock Jail – to speak to his sons. Imran Khan had filed a petition before a judge seeking permission to speak to his sons – Suleman Khan and Qasim Khan – on the phone. The judge approved the plea, instructing prison authorities to facilitate the telephonic conversation between the applicant and his sons in accordance with the law.
“Instant application is allowed. Superintendent District Jail Attock is directed to make necessary arrangements for phone calls between the accused and his sons in accordance with jail rules and manual,” the judge said in his brief order.
This comes a day after Imran Khan’s judicial remand was extended till September 13 in a case related to the alleged disclosure of state secrets. Earlier, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) sought responses from the law ministry and other respondents on Imran Khan’s plea against the recent decision to move the cipher case hearing from Islamabad to Attock Jail.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, who presided over the hearing, asked: “Was the court venue shifted?” to which Imran Khan’s lawyer answered that the court designated to hear cases filed under the Secrets Act was that of a magistrate.
“Authorising an anti-terrorism court judge to hear cases filed under the Official Secrets Act is wrong,” Imran Khan’s lawyer asserted, urging the court to issue notices to the respondents seeking their response on the matter, which the chief justice allowed.
Imran Khan’s sentence was suspended by a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court but he was not allowed to walk free, as the judge hearing the cipher case ordered that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief be kept in prison and produced for hearing. His party criticised the decision to conduct hearings in Attock jail.
