Imran, Qureshi given status of high-profile inmates

RAWALPINDI:PTI founding chairman Imran Khan and party stalwart Shah Mahmood Qureshi are being kept separately as high-profile prisoners – in their capacity of a former premier and foreign minister, respectively – in the same high security compound at where they were previously held at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

They are availing the facilities provided to inmates in a better class prison similar to the ones they had before their conviction including access to an exercise machine.

According to sources, the two men have been given two sets of prison uniform according to the jail manual.

However, as the PTI founding chairman’s trial is under way in other cases, it has not been made mandatory for him to wear the prison uniform.

The two inmates will also perform their prison labour inside the compound as per the written order.

The sources said high-profile prisoners could not be kept in jail factories, kitchens, hospitals, gardens, etc, among ordinary inmates.

Therefore, they will be kept there in their compound for maintenance work or any other task assigned by the jail administration.

Both prisoners can prepare their own food according to the assigned class.

They can also eat prepared food according to the jail manual.

Similarly, Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi, who has been convicted in the Toshakhana (gift repository and Iddat cases), has been assigned a female police staff headed by a lady assistant superintendent each from Attock and Multan stationed in two shifts 24 hours a day at the couple’s Bani Gala residence, which has been declared a sub-jail.

Male officers of Adiala Jail have been posted on the outer boundaries of the Bani Gala residence and Islamabad police are responsible for the security around it.

According to the sources, the former first lady is being provided breakfast, lunch and dinner by the prison administration according to the jail manual.

However, they added that as Bushra was not in a regular prison, but incarcerated in a sub-jail, she could not be provided with the facility of an exercise machine.

The sources said that since Imran and Qureshi were arrested and imprisoned in jail, that time would also be counted in their punishments.

A day earlier, a court sentenced Imran and his wife to seven years imprisonment in an “un-Islamic” marriage or Iddat case.

Last week, the PTI founding chairman and his wife were sentenced to 14-year imprisonment in the Toshakhana case.

Similarly, Imran and Qureshi were handed down a jail term of 10 years in the cipher case last week as well.