The Punjab government has put a ban on all kinds of meetings with all the prisoners at Adiyala Jail including PTI’s Chief Imran Khan for the period of next 15 days. In this connection the home department Punjab issued notification in which it is mentioned that the embargo was implemented due to a threat of the sabotaging the jail from the terrorists.
The provincial home department said that some secret and law enforcement agencies provided information that the terrorists may strike at Adiyala jail and the precautionary measure of preventing meetings with prisoners was taken to avoid any untoward incident.
The home department also instructed jail administration to conduct a search operation and security survey on 13th March (today) through Special Branch, Intelligence Bureau and Prison Department Punjab.
During the current week, the counter terrorism department of Rawalpindi police foiled an attempt to attack Adiyala Jail. Three persons were taken into custody. Heavy cache of arms, IEDs, hand grenade and ammunition along with the maps of the prison were recovered from the apprehended terrorists.
Central jail Rawalpindi, which is commonly known as Adiyala jail was constructed in 1986 at 75 hector of land. It has the capacity of about 2800 prisoners but it is overcrowded where almost more than double prisoners of its capacity are being kept. At preset approximately7500 prisoners are house s in the jail. Some high profile jailbirds including PTI’s founder Chairman Imran Khan, former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and ex Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhary Pervez Elahi are also in the central jail Adiyala.
Though the security threat is there but the complete ban on the meetings with the prisoners in the jail is out of thought as they especially political leaders should be allowed to meet at least with their lawyers. It seems that the politics of revenge is bounced back in Punjab like the era of early 90s.
PTI has also rejected the move by the provincial government. The current head of the party said that the lawyers and family members of Imran Khan must had been informed before issuing the order.
He demanded that there is big threat for Imran Khan as two life attempts were made on him. He demanded that the party leadership, his family members and team of the lawyers defendi9ng him in the different courts of law should be given access to him within short span of time.
If there is a real terror threat then the strict security measures should be taken and al the visitors should go through complete search instead of putting ban on the meetings with the prisoners. And if the PML(N) led Punjab government is playing politics to keep Imran Khan alone in the name of terrorism, then the CM Punjab should revise its policy as it is the era of social media and like early 90s the will of the government could not be fulfilled secretly.
