• Citing UN report, party wants ex-PM’s ‘basic rights’ in prison restored
• Says treatment at Adiala amounts to ‘deliberate and calculated cruelty’
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has expressed grave concern over the report issued by UN special rapporteur, Alice Jill Edwards, claiming that it exposed the incarceration and degrading treatment of former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala jail and termed it a blatant violation of international law and fundamental human rights.
In a statement issued by the PTI’s Central Media Department, the party said the UN report unequivocally confirmed what it has consistently maintained for months — that Mr Khan was being subjected to “inhuman, unlawful, and degrading treatment motivated entirely by political vendetta”.
The PTI asserted that the report reaffirmed its founding chairman’s “23 hours of solitary confinement, constant CCTV surveillance, isolation from the outside world, obstruction of meetings with legal counsel and family, denial of religious practices, and deprivation of basic human necessities, which constituted a blatant violation of prison rules and a flagrant breach of international human rights law”.
According to the UN, the statement read that “solitary confinement exceeding 15 days amounted to psychological torture”.
However, the party added that its founder had been forced to endure this torment for months.
‘Deliberate and calculated’
The party further asserted that subjecting a 72-year-old detainee, “suffering from serious medical conditions, a spinal injury, and wounds from a prior assassination attempt, to such conditions, while denying adequate medical care, amounted to deliberate and calculated cruelty”.
The PTI has demanded the immediate cessation of solitary confinement of its founder, the provision of detention conditions consistent with human dignity and international standards, unrestricted access to personal physicians, and the removal of all barriers to meetings in strict compliance with judicial orders.
The party stated that the matter had now “transcended the persecution of a single political prisoner” and become a litmus test for the credibility of law, justice, and human rights in Pakistan.
It vowed that if the “inhumane treatment” of Mr Khan continued, it would stand as one of the most egregious examples of “state-sponsored abuse and repression”.
Findings dismissed
However, Prime Minister’s aide Rana Ihsan Afzal dismissed the rapporteur’s findings, insisting that Mr Khan was being treated “according to prison rules and the jail manual”.
“His children have access, and he should schedule [a call] and put in the appropriate request. There is no issue or obstacle from the government,” he said.
Mr Afzal added that the PTI founder was being provided facilities “greater than his rights” as a B-class prisoner.
“He has the facilities of exercise available, good food is available, and ample space is also available.”
The PTI founder, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023.
The party has regularly raised concerns about his health and that of his wife. The PTI founder’s son, Kasim Khan, expressed fear during a Dec 1 interview that authorities were concealing “something irreversible” about his father’s condition.
However, Uzma Khanum, Mr Khan’s sister, said on Dec 2 that her incarcerated brother was “perfectly fine” after she was allowed to meet him, putting to rest rumours surrounding the former premier’s health.
Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2025
