Aleema Khan, sister of incarcerated former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, led an emotional protest outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Tuesday, accusing authorities of subjecting the PTI founder to prolonged illegal isolation and systematic psychological torture while denying family access for months despite court-ordered visitation rights on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Flanked by senior PTI leaders including Secretary General Salman Akram Raja and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial chief Junaid Akbar Khan, Aleema declared that the family has been staging weekly sit-ins for eight consecutive months, only to be repeatedly turned away, charging that Khan is being deliberately kept in solitary confinement under inhumane conditions designed to break his spirit.
The demonstration erupted days after a rare 20-minute meeting on December 2, when sister Uzma Khanum was finally permitted entry after weeks of total communication blackout; upon emerging, she revealed that although Khan appeared physically stable, he was enduring relentless mental torment and directly blamed Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir for orchestrating the campaign of psychological persecution.
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The Pakistan Army issued a scathing rebuttal, branding the former premier mentally unstable and narcissistic, while the government swiftly retaliated by permanently barring Uzma Khanum and other relatives from future visits, with Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar justifying the ban on grounds that prohibited political discussions had taken place inside the prison premises.
As heavily armed security forces maintained a suffocating cordon around the jail and PTI workers raised slogans demanding independent medical examination and immediate release, the standoff has intensified into the most serious challenge yet to the government’s narrative that Imran Khan is being held under standard judicial process rather than political vendetta.
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