Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Tuesday said that PTI founder Imran Khan's lawyer, Salman Safdar, reported the former prime minister was in high spirits in jail. Speaking to the media at the Factory Checkpoint in Rawalpindi, he explained that the senior lawyer's meeting with the PTI founder was a procedural requirement to advance pending legal cases, clarifying that it was not a "favour granted" by authorities.
He added that discussions covered legal aspects as well as the health of the founder and Bushra Bibi, dismissing any expectations of a political "breakthrough" from the visit. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, speaking alongside Salman Akram, underlined that the current high level of tension was largely a result of blocked meetings.
He contended that while the party founder was fully aware of the governor's rule and state of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he did not view the collapse of the PTI government as a welcome development. Gohar clarified that Salman Safdar brought back no information from Adiala Jail serving as a political news story, and explicitly denied that the jailed leader had expressed satisfaction regarding the end of the provincial government.
Dismissing rumours of a "forward bloc" in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as baseless, Gohar termed political victimization a severe threat to democracy. He also noted that Maulana Fazlur Rehman maintained his own party and political agenda.
Meanwhile, no one was granted permission to meet Imran Khan in Adiala Jail on Tuesday. The former prime minister's nephew Abdullah Khan, cousin Ghazi Burki, and senior legal representatives - including Barrister Gohar, Barrister Salman Akram, advocate Faisal Malik, Niazullah Khan Niazi, and advocate Owais Younus - were turned back from Adiala Road.
Separately, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Allama Nasir Abbas Jafri urged an immediate end to the governor's rule and emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Stressing that the people and youth of the province should not be pushed to a corner, he called on all political parties to come to the negotiating table.
Allama Nasir, who also serves as vice-chairman of Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Aiyeen-e-Pakistan, warned during a TV interview that the "politics of confrontation" was plunging the country into chaos, urging politicians to unite for the public mandate, constitutional supremacy, and free and fair elections.