ARAB AND WORLD

Tue 26 Sep 2023 1:52 pm - Jerusalem Time

Pakistan's ex-PM Khan to be moved to prison with better facilities

Pakistani authorities were preparing on Monday to move former prime minister Imran Khan (pictured) to a prison with better facilities after a court order, his party said.


His legal team and party had been pleading with several courts to issue orders for Khan to be shifted to Adyala Jail in garrison city of Rawalpindi, which they argued was more appropriate for a former premier.


“Arrangements are taking place,” Khan’s close aide Zulfikar Bukhari said in a message to journalists, referring to preparations to move the former premier after Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, said a high court in the capital had ordered the move.


Panjutha later wrote on social media platform X that Khan had been moved to the new prison but then deleted that post. Khan has been detained in a low-key, colonial era prison in the northwestern Attock district that lacked facilities like attached bathroom and television and made it harder for family and friends to visit or send newspapers, books or food.


The former prime minister has been in jail since early August after being controversially convicted on hotly disputed corruption charges. The judge cantered to Britain for a workshop after announcing a verdict without hearing the defense witnesses.


A court suspended his three year prison term, but his release on bail did not happen as authorities charged him in another case related to “leaking state secrets”.


The Intercept, an American news outlet known for its investigative mien, last month published the full contents of the cipher at the heart of the case, which appeared to strongly back Khan’s claim of US involvement in his removal from power by orchestrating a no-confidence vote in the parliament for not siding with Washington in the Ukraine war.


Khan says the charges are designed to stop him running in an election early next year, an allegation the authorities deny. From moving as a free citizen until last year, he has been charged in over 150 cases. Most opinion polls this year give him an edge over his rivals by a country mile, but he has been barred from contesting after the court verdict last month.

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Pakistan's ex-PM Khan to be moved to prison with better facilities