Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi confined to jail cell for death-row inmates: sources

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and Senior Vice President of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is lodged in a death cell with solitary confinement in defiance of basic human rights and violation of the relevant laws, say family sources.

The former premier, who has completed one month in the Adiala prison where he was consigned by an accountability court for judicial remand, has developed numerous health problems due to lack of due care by the jail administration. 

He will be produced in the court today for further proceedings, as he hasn’t moved for bail or any other relief while in the jail. His family sources told Geo News that the health of Abbasi, who has already undergone two serious surgeries in recent past, is a concern.

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The jail doctors have recommended two further surgeries for Abbasi, but the authorities have been criminally ignoring the health issues of the former premier, whose health is deteriorating at a fast pace, say family sources of Abbasi.

The medical board has advised for provision of home cook food for Abbasi as well, and the jail manual also guarantees the facility, since he is an under-trial detainee. The former premier is also been denied visitors. 

Sources say that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi hasn’t asked for any concession and hasn’t moved for bail, but his lawyers are now considering applying for bail as the prosecution has failed in making any headway in the case against him because of lack of any credible evidence. 

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Abbasi was implicated in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) case along with former federal minister for finance Miftah Ismail and former managing director Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Imran ul Haq, who are also in judicial lock up. 

The NAB sought an extension in physical remand of the former premie a few weeks ago but the court rejected the anti-graft body's request, and sent them to jail on judicial remand. 

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi submitted a 9-page written statement to the court five weeks ago, and stood behind the rostrum and told the judge that NAB had intimidated two officers of the ministry to become approvers in the case. 

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He sarcastically asked the judge to approve NAB's request for his remand. "It has become a banana republic. I am telling the court that there is no justice in these courts," Shahid Abbasi said, who belongs to a dignified family. 

Since then, he has been kept in the prison in an inhumane atmosphere. He had requested the court to conduct an open trial, so that people could know what was going on in the country. 

"It is political engineering", he said. The family sources said that he would again insist for an open trial that should be televised live countrywide.