RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders turned up at Adiala jail on Thursday after two straight weeks in which no nominated party representative appeared to meet jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, a lapse that had sharpened criticism inside the party and fueled talk of internal disarray. The visits come against the backdrop of a long-running dispute over access to Khan, despite court orders allowing him to meet family, lawyers and party colleagues twice a week.
The gap had become politically awkward for PTI. On April 16, a list sent to jail authorities included senior figures such as Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Latif Khosa, Babar Awan, Hamid Khan, Intizar Panjotha and Salman Akram Raja, but none arrived at the prison. A week later, on April 23, another six-name list was submitted and, again, no party leader reached Adiala jail before the 4pm cutoff.
That second no-show stung a bit more because it came after party leaders had already been under fire for months over who gets nominated for Thursday meetings. PTI’s critics, and some within the party too, had complained that senior leadership often stayed away while lower-tier leaders were put on the lists. Dawn reported that Imran Khan’s sisters, by contrast, had kept turning up on Tuesdays in repeated efforts to see him, even when authorities did not allow the meetings to go ahead.
PTI itself acknowledged the embarrassment after the April 23 no-show. Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told Dawn the party had taken “strict notice” of the matter and would address the “unfortunate development,” while warning that those unable to travel to Adiala should not submit their names for meetings.
The jail access fight has been simmering for months, and that’s really the larger story here. The Islamabad High Court has allowed Khan twice-weekly meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but multiple reports say those directions have not been fully implemented in practice. Even when lists were submitted in advance, PTI leaders have at times said they were stopped outside the facility or prevented from proceeding beyond checkpoints. On April 2, for example, Pakistan Today reported that a nominated PTI delegation said it reached the area before the scheduled window but was still blocked from meeting Khan.
So Thursday’s appearance by PTI leaders was more than a routine jail visit. It was also an attempt to show the party had heard the criticism and was trying to close ranks, at least publicly, after two weeks that handed its opponents an easy talking point. Whether that signals real internal discipline or just a temporary correction is less clear. The recent pattern suggests PTI is still struggling with both organisational coherence and the state-imposed barriers around access to its founder.
For Khan’s supporters, the central complaint remains unchanged: a court order exists, but access is still unpredictable. And for PTI, every missed visit now carries extra weight, because it doesn’t just look like a scheduling problem. It looks political.
