ISLAMABAD:
Security around the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has been significantly tightened in response to a protest call issued by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to show solidarity with the judiciary. Additional police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel have been deployed to maintain order and ensure public safety.
This heightened security alert comes as PTI founder Imran Khan urged party workers to gear up for a large-scale movement across the country against the current government. Speaking through his sister, Aleema Khan, Imran emphasized that while he would not call on supporters to gather in Islamabad, he planned to mobilize protests nationwide.
Aleema Khan, addressing the media outside the jail, shared her brother’s determination to stand against all forms of oppression, stating, “Imran Khan has made it clear that he will never bow to subjugation, even if it means spending the rest of his life behind bars.”
She also revealed that despite being a former prime minister, Imran Khan has been denied basic rights typically granted to prisoners. “In the past eight months, he has only been allowed one brief conversation with his children and has not been permitted to meet his sisters,” she noted, adding that efforts to send him books have been thwarted by jail authorities and even his doctors have been refused access.
Aleema also said that Imran believes his wife, Bushra Bibi, was imprisoned as a tactic to exert pressure on him. “No matter how intense the torture, Imran Khan has vowed never to accept subjugation,” she reiterated.
Meanwhile, PTI voiced concerns over delays in the appeals filed by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi against their conviction in the £190 million case. The Islamabad High Court had recently indicated that these appeals might not be heard this year due to a heavy backlog of pending cases.
PTI’s protest call came on the same day that a 13-member larger bench of the Supreme Court began hearing review petitions against its July 12 verdict. This decision had allocated PTI reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies, although the review is being heard without six of the original judges, including the one who authored the judgement.
