ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday reserved its judgment on the maintainability of petitions challenging the alleged solitary confinement of former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in Adiala jail following their conviction in the £190 million corruption case.
A single-member bench comprising Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro heard the petitions filed by Imran’s sister Aleema Khan and Bushra’s daughter Mubashra Khawar Maneka.
During the hearing, Judge Soomro noted that the judgments handed down by accountability courts in the £190m and Toshakhana-I cases do not allow for solitary confinement.
“I have perused both the sentences. There is no penalty for solitary confinement. We will first decide whether these petitions are maintainable. If they are found maintainable, then notices will be issued to the jail authorities seeking their response,” the judge observed.
The petitioners’ lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, argued that the PTI founder and Bushra Bibi had been held in solitary confinement for months in violation of prison rules and international standards, particularly the Nelson Mandela Rules.
He told the court that previous petitions had only referred to solitary confinement as background and had not specifically sought its termination. Safdar claimed that Bushra had not been allowed to receive visitors for the past seven months.
He said that after meeting Imran under a court order, it emerged that he was kept in solitary confinement for about 22 hours a day, while Bushra was allegedly locked up for 24 hours a day.
The lawyer further claimed that the PTI founder was 74 years old, had lost sight in one eye, and that both he and Bushra Bibi had undergone eye surgeries, yet were kept in solitary confinement.
He added that though he had been allowed to meet the PTI founder as per a court order, he had not been allowed to meet Bushra Bibi for the past seven months.
NAB prosecutor Rafi Maqsood objected to the petitions, arguing that Aleema Khan and Mubashra Khawar Maneka were not aggrieved parties and therefore lacked the legal standing to file the petitions.
He told the court that the PTI founder and Bushra Bibi were not kept in solitary confinement and matters relating to convicted prisoners were governed by the jail rules. He claimed that the petitioners had not approached the prison authorities before filing the constitutional petitions.
In rebuttal, Safdar argued that if the government denied the allegations of solitary confinement, the court could summon the PTI founder and Bushra Bibi to get the information directly from them.
