‘Adjusted’ to jail life, Imran Khan tells his legal team

Imran Khan was sent to jail on August 5 after his conviction in the Toshakhana case but the Islamabad High Court suspended his sentence on August 29 and ordered his release

Islamabad: Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan has told his legal team that he had “adjusted” himself in the environment of the high-security Attock District Jail, a media report said on Thursday.

Khan, 70, in his interaction with his legal team, led by Salman Safdar, shared some interesting revelations, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

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The former premier is happy over the changing of his status after the suspension of his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case and now he has been given some additional facilities. He was also happy to get a pencil and paper for writing for the first time, the paper reported.

For the first time, Khan saw himself in the mirror during his imprisonment. He also shaved for the first time since his incarceration, it added.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief has completed reading his Islamic books and now he has asked his legal team to send him writings on political history. It has been learnt that he had been provided a TV set on which only the state-run PTV channel could be seen but he usually did not watch it.

Khan also expressed his disappointment over the Supreme Court returning his petition — challenging his ‘political victimisation’ and denial of ‘right to fair trial’ over rejected pre-arrest bail pleas — by raising objections after five days of filing it. He believes that the top court should have taken up his petition.

His lawyer, Salman Safdar, has requested the special court to conduct his client’s trial at a regular one with access given to the general public, enabling them to attend the proceedings to ensure fairness and dispensation of justice, the paper said.

The lawyer has also challenged the notification of the law ministry expressing “no objection” in conducting a jail trial.

He asked the court to set aside the notification and declare it as illegal, unlawful as well as against the principles of a fair trial and proceedings guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution, according to the paper.

Khan was sent to jail on August 5 after his conviction in the Toshakhana case but the Islamabad High Court suspended his sentence on August 29 and ordered his release. But he was not set free as a special court set up to try him in the violation of the official secret act decided to remand him in jail until September 13.