Citing security reasons, Pakistan’s Punjab government has banned former prime minister Imran Khan from holding any meetings, including with his family members, lawyers and party leaders for two weeks at the Adiala Jail, a move criticised by his party as “illegal”.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has strongly protested the government’s “fascist” decision, saying another attempt is made by the state to silence the cricketer-turned-politician’s voice and alleged that his life is under threat.

According to the Punjab Home Department notification, based on the threat alerts shared by different intelligence agencies of the country, there exist different types of threats to the security of Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi (where Imran Khan has been incarcerated).

 “Some anti-state terrorist groups supported by the enemies of Pakistan have planned targeted attacks thereof. Stop meetings, public visits, meetings and interviews within Adiala Jail immediately for two weeks. This matter may be treated as most important,” says the Home Department’s order to the Inspector General Prisons of Punjab.

 On the other hand, the PTI says no such security concern was conveyed to the party’s legal team. “Islamabad High Court had authorised meeting of PTI senior leaders Senator Shibli Fraz, Omer Ayub Khan and Barrister Gohar Khan with Imran Khan this morning and yet there was no mention of threat at any level,” a PTI spokesperson said. He said the “fake governments” of Shehbaz Sharif in the Centre and Maryam Nawaz in Punjab have taken this illegal step.

 Terming the ban illegal, the party alleged that Khan’s life was under threat and called for his immediate release.

 “The illegal ban on meeting Imran Khan in Adiyala jail despite court orders is worrisome and suggests that his life is under threat. The nation demands the immediate release of their leader Imran Khan! #ReleaseImranKhan,” the PTI said in a post on X.

“Imran Khan has been incarcerated unlawfully for 220 days and is now isolated from meeting his party, lawyers, and family members, a deliberate effort to break his spirit,” it said in another post.The party also said it will challenge the government’s illegal step in the court. After the formation of the new government led by Shehbaz Sharif, the noose has further been tightened against the PTI and its leadership.

Terrorism cases have been registered against the PTI leaders and workers for holding peaceful protests against the February 8 polls riggings. The PTI calls the rulers “mandate thieves” and is urging the judiciary to take notice of massive election rigging which Imran Khan calls “mother of all rigging.” The ex-prime minister, along with former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was handed down a sentence of 10 years each in the cipher case in January for publishing contents of a secret cable sent by the country’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.The cipher case pertains to a piece of paper, purported to be a diplomatic cable — the cipher — that Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, and naming the US, had claimed that it was ‘evidence’ of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.

 The Federal Investigation Agency filed the case against Khan and Qureshi on August 15 last year, which accused both of violating the secrecy laws while handling the cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022.

 Khan and Qureshi have also been barred from politics for five years.