Adiala Jail’s deputy superintendent Muhammad Akram has been taken into custody on charges of aiding incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, sources said on Wednesday.
Akram was removed from his post on June 20, while Deputy Superintendent Judicial Tahir Siddique Shah replaced him as security supervisor of PTI founder Imran Khan. The Punjab home department (prison section), through a notification, had removed Muhammad Akram, directing him to leave the charge and report to the Prisons Department, Lahore. The law enforcement agencies started interrogating the arrested senior officer of Central Jail Rawalpindi – also known as Adiala Jail.
The sources said Akram would allegedly convey the jailed PTI founder messages outside the prison facility secretly. They said that the LEAs formally informed the Inspector General of Prisons, Punjab, regarding the senior police officer arrest and probe. After the completion of the probe, the suspect would face departmental action. Sources added that Assistant Superintendent Bilal was also questioned by intelligence personnel in Rawalpindi regarding his alleged involvement in providing special assistance to the PTI founder.
The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been in prison for more than one year after he was booked in plethora of cases, including the Toshakhana case, cipher case, and the un-Islamic marriage case. His wife, Bushra Bibi, has also been behind bars for months.
However, a court suspended his sentence in the Toshakhana case, while other courts overturned his convictions in the cipher and iddat cases, respectively. While there were hopes for his and Bushra’s release in July, they were dashed when the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested them on fresh charges related to the sale of state gifts. The chances of Imran’s release from jail further dimmed after the Lahore Police declared his arrest in several cases related to the May 9, 2023, riots, that erupted after his detainment from from Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises last year in which protesters targeted government and military installations.
