ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sunday expressed grave concern over the ‘highly disturbing and eye-opening report’ issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, confirming the jailed leader was being subjected to political vendetta.
The party claimed that the report exposed the unlawful incarceration, inhuman and degrading treatment of former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala jail, constituting a blatant violation of international law and fundamental human rights.
In a statement issued by PTI’s Central Media Department, the party said the UN report unequivocally confirmed what it had consistently maintained for months that Imran was being subjected to inhuman, unlawful, and degrading treatment motivated entirely by political vendetta.
The party asserted that the shocking report reaffirmed PTI founding chairman’s 23 hours of solitary confinement, constant CCTV surveillance, isolation from the outside world, obstruction of meetings with legal counsel and family, denial of religious practice and deprivation of basic human necessities, which constituted a blatant violation of prison rules and a flagrant breach of international human rights law.
According to the United Nations, the statement reads that solitary confinement exceeding 15 days amounts to psychological torture. Imran Khan, the PTI stated, however, has been forced to endure this torment for months.
The party asserted that subjecting a 72-year-old detainee, suffering from serious medical conditions, a spinal injury and wounds from a prior assassination attempt, to such conditions while denying adequate medical care amounts to deliberate and calculated cruelty.
PTI demanded immediate cessation of solitary confinement, provision of detention conditions consistent with human dignity and international standards, unrestricted access to personal physicians and removal of all unlawful barriers to meetings in strict compliance with judicial orders.
The party contended that this matter had now transcended the persecution of a single political prisoner and had become a litmus test for the credibility of law, justice and human rights in Pakistan. The party vowed that if this inhumane treatment of Imran continued, it will stand as one of the most egregious examples of state-sponsored abuse and repression.
