Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday got permission to hold a telephone conversation with his sons, Qasim and Suleiman, by the court conducting the trial in the cypher case.

The court instructed the superintendent of Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to facilitate the contact through WhatsApp.

During the hearing, special court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain heard the petition seeking directives to jail officials to allow the PTI chief to contact his sons. Imran’s counsel, Sheraz Ahmed Ranjha, appeared in court.

The judge then allowed the phone call to “family members” after observing that “the agonies of the family cannot [be] kept isolated”.

Furthermore, Imran’s lawyer also requested the court’s assistance in providing a bicycle for Imran’s well-being. To this, the judge replied that he does not “want the cycle to be misused” and emphasised that the security of the under-trial prisoner was paramount.

The judge then stated that he will issue orders for the provision of a bicycle.

On the matter of home-cooked meals for the PTI chairman, the judge refused to entertain the request on grounds of fixing responsibility. “If meals are prepared in prison, then jail officials will be respondible.”

The cypher case pertains to a document waved by Imran, the then prime minister, at a public rally in March last year, terming it as evidence of a foreign conspiracy behind the no-confidence motion he faced at that time. The motion was carried a few weeks later, leading to the end of Imran’s government.