LAHORE, The prison chosen by the government to detain former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, who was convicted of corruption, is a squalid, remote facility that houses hardened criminals and has no facilities for political prisoners, his party and lawyers said Monday.
Khan, the flamboyant cricketer-turned-politician, has long been associated with a lavish lifestyle in Pakistan and abroad as a sporting icon and national hero. According to an arrest warrant seen by Reuters, Khan was to be sent to Rawalpindi’s Adiala prison following his conviction on Saturday, but he was instead transferred to District prison Attock, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Islamabad. “He believes he was brought to this jail on purpose because there are no ‘A-class’ or ‘B-class’ facilities here,” said one of Khan’s attorneys, Nameem Panjutha, after meeting with him on Monday. “A-class” and “B-class” cells have more amenities for inmates.
According to the facility’s website, the Attock jail was constructed in 1905 during British colonial rule of the subcontinent and spans 67 acres with a 17-acre built structure. According to the government’s website, the penitentiary is overcrowded, with more than 800 inmates compared to a maximum capacity of 530.
Attock jail is not as prominent or central as other larger institutions, such as Adiala jail, where a number of former prime ministers have been held over the course of Pakistan’s 76-year history, during which no elected prime minister has served a full term.
Khan is being held in a confined cell, according to Panjutha, but Gulzar Butt, a retired jailor who served at Attock, told Reuters that the cells in the prison have been modified in recent years to all measure 10 feet by 12 feet (3 x 3.7 metres).
Officials and witnesses assert that the prison’s security has been heightened since Khan was transferred there. Inside, Khan’s attorneys assert that he faces rigorous conditions.
“It is a small room with an open bathroom where, according to him, there are flies during the day and insects at night,” Panjutha said. He stated that there was no air conditioning in an area notorious for high temperatures and humidity during the summer and monsoon seasons, adding that Khan, the Muslim religious man, spent his time praying and reading the Koran.
Khan has no access to television, which, according to his attorneys, he is entitled to as a former prime minister. Panjutha stated that he was provided with minimal jail food, including lentils and bread. The information minister of Punjab, who oversees the jail, and the jail’s warden did not respond to requests for comment regarding the attorney’s allegations. Khan, who grew up in an affluent family in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, attended the University of Oxford, and subsequently developed a playboy reputation in London in the late 1970s as his cricket career flourished, has experienced a precipitous decline. Khan has two residences in Pakistan, one on a sprawling hilltop in Islamabad and the other in the wealthiest neighbourhood of Lahore.
He has been convicted of misusing his premiership from 2018 to 2022 to purchase and sell gifts in state possession that he received during foreign visits and were valued at over $490,000. Butt, the retired jailer, stated that prisoners at the jail were classified as A, B, or C. Provincial authorities could issue directives to the jail administration if a detainee was regarded significant.
“The superintendent would then provide the prisoner with a separate cell, enable his family to provide him with food, assign unarmed guards for his safety, and assign him a few prisoners with a good record to serve him… “Most prominent people receive a B,” said Butt. Butt added that a prisoner may, upon special request and with the sanction of provincial authorities, have an air conditioner installed in their cell at their own expense, as well as pay their own electricity bill.
The legal team of Khan stated that they are requesting improved conditions for the former prime minister.