A petition for incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan’s jail facilities divided his legal team on Saturday after the party disassociated from the application filed by one of the lawyers Faisal Chaudhry.
“I filed a petition today at the request of Barrister Gohar. What is the legal team? I am Khan Sahib’s lawyer,” he said while appearing on Aaj News programme Dus.
Khan has been in prison on various charges, from corruption to inciting violence, for more than one year.
The PTI has claimed that the former prime minister was not being provided adequate facilities, however, the Adiala Jail administration has rejected such claims.
Earlier in the day, Faisal filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court demanding that basic facilities be provided to PTI founder Imran Khan in jail. But the PTI rejected the petition.
The advocate claimed that he submitted the petition on behalf of the former prime minister. The petition argues that “depriving” Khan of essential facilities in jail constitutes a violation of the jail manual.
It claimed that the PTI founder was being held in a “very small cell” without access to exercise facilities. The petition also claimed that he had been deprived of the ability to eat his own food.
In addition, the petition requested that Khan should be provided with access to television and newspapers, which have allegedly been taken away from him.
The petition argued that the court is the guardian of Khans human rights and calls for an “immediate restoration of his rights” while incarcerated.
But the PTI removed Faisal from the legal team, with PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan saying that the petition was submitted to the court without the “consultation of the legal team” and that it used an “old power of attorney.”
He added that a new petition regarding facilities for the PTI founder would be filed on Monday, with their own lawyers handling the submission.
Sheikh Waqas Akram supported Gohar’s statement.
But Faisal claimed that he had not been informed or contacted about his removal.
“A lawyer’s services are what matter. If I am delivering results, I will stay; if I cannot, then my client has the right to choose any lawyer,” he said.
The lawyer spoke candidly about the dynamics within the legal profession, acknowledging that lawyers often experience jealousy over each other’s successes.
“When I was about to leave, I informed Khan Sahib that I would be filing this petition, to which he responded, ‘Go ahead.’ After Khan Sahib’s ‘go ahead,’ I will not listen to anyone else.”
When asked about Salman Akram Raja, he remarked, “The individuals you are mentioning are not significant enough for me to discuss.”
