RAWALPINDI: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Friday called off the 18-hour-long sit-in staged near Adiala Jail in protest against the authorities for repeatedly not letting him and other party leaders meet incarcerated PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.
Afridi, accompanied by senior PTI leaders and workers, had started the protest sit-in at Factory Naka on Thursday last after police stopped him from proceeding to the jail.
The CM and party workers spent the night outside Adiala Jail and offered Fajr prayers there early Friday morning.
Following the conclusion of the sit-in, Afridi travelled to Islamabad seeking a meeting with the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). However, upon reaching the IHC, he was informed that the chief justice would not meet him.
Talking to reporters on Friday morning, Afridi announced the calling off of the sit-in and said he would now move to the IHC to meet the IHC Chief Justice. He said he will request the CJ to enforce a previous court order allowing a meeting with Khan. “In the presence of all our lawyers, a judge had directed the jail superintendent to arrange a meeting,” he said.
Afridi noted that earlier IHC orders were explicit—granting Khan the right to meet his family and lawyers on every Tuesday and party leadership on every Thursday. “I believe the courts should ensure implementation of their orders,” he added.
KP CM said he had used all available constitutional and legal channels to meet his party’s founding chairman. “We have concerns over the reports circulating regarding the health of Khan because we have not been allowed to meet Khan to inquire about his health,” he said.
He also recalled the treatment meted out to Imran’s sisters outside Adiala last week, adding that “you have seen the situation yourself; they were grabbed by their hair and disrespected.”
Mahmood Khan Achakzai, head of the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, provincial minister Meena Khan Afridi, Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM) KP for Information and Public Relations, Shafiullah Jan, MNA Shahid Khattak, former minister Shaoukat Yousafzai, MPA Tanveer Aslam, Senator Mishal Yousufzai, Dr Shafqat Ayaz, and others attended the sit-in.
PTI leaders and supporters spent the whole night under the open sky.
Achakzai said the CM came here, as a representative of a federating unit, with an expectation that he would be allowed to meet with Khan, particularly after obtaining a court order.
The CM was under the impression that he was a constitutional representative of the federation. The KP CM thought that since the court had put it in writing, he would be granted a meeting with his leader. However, he has now realized that those in charge here do not respect democratic norms or the language of honour, Achakzai said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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