Judge requests jail SOPs for calls from Imran
RAWALPINDI: For its next hearing on October 18, the special court appointed to examine matters involving the Official Secrets Act (OSA) has requested the Adiala Jail’s standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The order was given after the jail’s superintendent informed the court that he could not allow Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former prime minister, who is being held in connection with the Cypher case, to call his sons in other countries. This choice was supported by the prison manual, which states that OSA-detained detainees cannot use this facility.
Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain presided over the proceedings, which took place within the Adiala Jail premises. The Adiala Jail superintendent, in his report submitted to the court, explained that he had denied Imran Khan’s request to speak with his sons residing abroad, citing the prohibition on suspects arrested under the OSA from communicating with individuals outside the country.
The next hearing is scheduled for October 18, and the court has ordered that the SOPs pertaining to inmate phone privileges be provided at that time. Imran Khan’s detention in Attock Jail had led to a situation almost similar to this one.
Last month, the superintendent of Attock Jail informed the special court that the prison manual forbade such connections in response to a contempt suit filed by Imran Khan for being denied access to phone or WhatsApp communication with his sons who were living abroad. He further stated that inmates detained in cases involving OSA were not permitted to make international calls.
In the Toshakhana (gift repository) case, Imran had been given a three-year prison term. Imran was detained in the cypher case, a FIR filed against him under the OSA by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) for the “wrongful use” and illegal keeping of sensitive material, even though the Islamabad High Court had stayed the sentence.
In a written answer, the Attock Jail superintendent advised the judge that he could not contemplate disobeying the court’s orders.
Under sections 5 (wrongful transfer of information, etc.) and 9 (attempts, incitements, etc.) of the OSA of 1923, read with Section 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, the FIA CTW had filed a case against Imran and his colleague party leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Based on a complaint made in Islamabad by the former interior secretary, Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, after an investigation that was completed on October 5, 2022,
Imran, Qureshi, and their accomplices were accused of communicating information from a secret, classified document to unauthorized people, which was “prejudicial to the interests” of state security, according to the accusation.
The order was given after the jail’s superintendent informed the court that he could not allow Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former prime minister, who is being held in connection with the Cypher case, to call his sons in other countries. This choice was supported by the prison manual, which states that OSA-detained detainees cannot use this facility.
In the Toshakhana (gift repository) case, Imran had been given a three-year prison term. Imran was detained in the cypher case, a FIR filed against him under the OSA by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) for the “wrongful use” and illegal keeping of sensitive material, even though the Islamabad High Court had stayed the sentence.
Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain presided over the proceedings, which took place within the Adiala Jail premises. The Adiala Jail superintendent, in his report submitted to the court, explained that he had denied Imran Khan’s request to speak with his sons residing abroad, citing the prohibition on suspects arrested under the OSA from communicating with individuals outside the country.
