Rawalpindi, November 28, 2025 – Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi called off an overnight sit-in outside Adiala Jail on Friday morning after spending the night in freezing conditions with cabinet members and PTI workers, protesting his eighth consecutive refusal to meet incarcerated party founder Imran Khan.
The protest began Thursday afternoon when police blocked Afridi’s convoy at Factory Naka, preventing him from reaching the prison despite multiple Islamabad High Court orders mandating weekly meetings between Khan and party leadership on Thursdays.
“We will now go to the IHC to meet the chief justice,” he said, wrapped in a beige shawl to fend off the cold. https://t.co/FioQbarWIf
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) November 28, 2025
Wrapped in a shawl as dawn broke, Afridi announced on a PTI livestream that the sit-in was ending but vowed to immediately approach the Islamabad High Court. “Three IHC judges ordered these meetings. If court orders are not implemented, this becomes the law of the jungle,” he said, flanked by supporters who had prayed Fajr outside the jail gates and warmed themselves around a fire through the night.
The chief minister, who assumed office last month after Ali Amin Gandapur, expressed exasperation that neither he, Khan’s family, lawyers, nor doctors had been granted access for weeks, fuelling party fears over the former prime minister’s health and safety.
PTI leaders accused authorities of deliberately isolating Khan and cited last week’s alleged manhandling of his sisters outside the jail as evidence of a campaign to “break his spirit.” Afridi warned that continued defiance of court orders left the party with few remaining options.
A jail official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that Khan remained in good health and that no transfer was planned. The Interior Ministry declined to comment.
The dramatic protest underscored deepening tensions between the PTI-led provincial government and federal authorities amid Khan’s prolonged detention.
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