• Aleema says the prison authorities prevented family from meeting IMRAN.
• Adds family members denied meeting for 3 consecutive weeks.
• “Will sit out of jail if not allowed to meet PTI -founder.”

Rawal Pindi: Family members of the Pakistan Tehreek-In-Insaf (PTI) Founder Imran Khan were excluded from visiting him in Rawalpindis Adiala prison on Tuesday and triggered intense criticism from his sister Aleema Khan.

Imran Sisters – Aleema and Uzma Khan – and Qasim Khan Niazi were stopped from entering the prison rooms.

In a statement, Aleema said she did not understand why the authorities were nervous. “It’s just family here, no one else.”

She claimed that the authorities had conveyed that the family would not be allowed to meet the imprisoned PTI founder. “They said we’re not allowed to go in. Why not?” She asked.

Aleema revealed that the family members had been denied a meeting for three consecutive weeks. “Today, the police have again been deployed here to prevent us from meeting him.”

“Under such circumstances, if we don’t feel upset, what else should we feel?” She asked.

She also said that if they were not allowed to meet the PTI founder, they would continue to sit outside the prison. “We are very distressed. It’s been three weeks and we still haven’t been able to meet him,” she added.

Last month, Islamabad reintroduced High Court (IHC) twice a weekly meetings with PTI founder so they could take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

However, the court strictly banned any medias interview after these meetings. It decided that no individual meeting the PTI foundation chairman is allowed to talk to the media afterwards.

In addition, only those people whose names are provided by the PTI founder’s coordinator, Salman Akram Raja, are allowed to meet him.

Previously, Aleema expressed concern over limited access to his brother.

When she responded to the PTI leadership meeting with the former prime minister, she regretted the selective enforcement of meeting restrictions and said that the prison authorities had categorically told them that family meetings were not allowed during gauze holidays.

“Yesterday, April 1, was a gauze holiday and we were not allowed to meet our brother. The last time we saw him was March 20. On March 27, we were also denied access,” she said in a post on X.

Aleema also asked why others gained access, while family members were limited – with reference to Imran’s meeting with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur and lawyer Muhammad Ali Saif.

“Are the gauze holiday limits only for the family? We have not been allowed to meet Imran, and he is also prevented from talking to his sons.”