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The incarceration of Imran Khan, in defiance of the jail manual, is now becoming a source of irritation and embarrassment. The former PM’s sons, Kasim and Sulaiman, have once again flagged the issue as they went on to elucidate on international media that their father is being held “incommunicado”, and that the orders of the relevant courts are being thrown to the wind. The PTI chief is allegedly being held in solitary confinement for the last eight months, and has also been denied access to family, lawyers and personal physicians. Moreover, the scions of Khan stated that the express orders allowing them to have telephonic conversation twice a month is also not forthcoming, nor are they being granted a Pakistan visa to see their jailed ailing father. Last but not least, the family’s request to have Imran treated at a private hospital is also not being entertained despite orders from the superior judiciary for abidance as per law.
This long list of grievances places the government on the wrong side of the law. Apart from deepening mistrust with the opposition, it has resulted in furthering political instability. The PTI’s protest campaign on Khan’s completion of his third year in prison is gradually stirring unrest. Just the other day, a rally in Karachi was tear-gassed and scores of workers arrested. Likewise, the momentum that the campaign is gathering in other cities, especially in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa, could turn out to be worrisome for the ruling coalition, which, incidentally, is already on edge because of the economic crisis and a challenging external environment.
All these factors necessitate the desire for setting in some serenity. The way forward is to start dealing with the opposition as per the law, and provide it with its due political space. Time and again, the opposition has expressed its willingness to enter into a national dialogue on the salient features of restoring the spirit of the Constitution, undoing legislations that have usurped the independence of judiciary for chalking out a roadmap for economic turnaround. It’s time for the government to realise that its brinkmanship of cornering the opposition has bred discontent. The path ahead is to reconcile by releasing political prisoners, including Khan, and to collectively work inside the parliament for some instant fence-mending on issues of national interest.
