Pakistan’s Imran Khan has “no facilities” in prison, his lawyer said on Monday, two days after the former prime minister was convicted over graft and jailed for three years.
The prison selected by the government to detain Khan is a lowly and distant facility that houses hardened criminals and does not have the conditions that political prisoners are entitled to, his party and lawyers said.
“He (Khan) told me that he had been provided with no facilities. There is no air conditioning, which as a former prime minister, he should be entitled to. There is only a fan, and the washroom is open and the shower is not working. During the day, there are lots of flies, and at night there are various insects. It rained at night and the water seeped into the barrack. He was put into a small room where it is difficult for him to pray,” Khan’s Lawyer Naeem Panjutha said.
“(Khan said) ‘I have no access to a mobile phone, there is no television either, to know what is happening. Newspapers are not allowed to be brought in. No basic facilities are provided to me,” he added.
It is a dramatic fall from the luxurious lifestyle that Khan, the charismatic cricketer-turned-politician, has long been associated with in Pakistan and abroad as a sporting icon and national hero.
Speaking during a news conference in Islamabad, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is leading the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) while Khan is in jail, said a petition will be filed on Tuesday to challenge the conditions.
