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  "path": "/news/1972044/sc-rejects-request-for-immediate-meeting-with-pti-founder-imran-khan",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-09T07:19:09.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
    "Pakistan",
    "fixed"
  ],
  "textContent": "ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday rejected the request for an immediate meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan.\n\nThe SC earlier fixed for hearing 13 petitions related to Imran and Bushra Bibi, and said PTI’s memorandum seeking jail visitation rights for the party founder has been forwarded to the relevant executive authorities for consideration under the law.\n\nThe request for the meeting, submitted by senior PTI leader Latif Khosa, was rejected by the two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yayha Afridi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.\n\nThe apex court observed that such an order could not be passed without issuing notice to the government.\n\nA notice was then issued to the government for tomorrow (Tuesday).\n\nAddressing Khosa during the hearing, CJP Afridi said that “we have to overcome the hurdle of the maintainability of the application”.\n\n“Keep in mind that you have cases pending in other courts,” he remarked.\n\n“We believe that the case has become infructuous,” he said, recalling an August 24, 2023, order “against which the case was filed”.\n\nHe said that the court “can not issue any order regarding the meeting without issuing notice”.\n\nThe SC also ordered the formation of a three-member bench to hear appeals against the PTI founder’s acquittal in the cipher case.\n\nA three-member bench has also been ordered to hear appeals against the acquittal of PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the same case.\n\nHearing Imran’s bail petition in the Al-Qadir University Trust case, the court dismissed the PTI founder’s bail plea as infructuous.\n\nLater, speaking to the media, Imran’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, said that the “chief justice today heard all the petitioners against the PTI founder’s cases.”\n\n“Every case in which Imran Khan had received some relief earlier, appeals were filed against it by the government,” he said.\n\n“The cipher case was the most high-stakes trial in Pakistan, and you saw how it ended,” Safdar maintained.\n\n“All the live cases are still pending,” he said.\n\nHe held that the SC had “always granted us relief,” adding that he “appealed to meet the chief justice”.\n\nHe recalled that in the past five months, “we have only had a five-minute meeting” with the former premier.\n\n“Our cases are not being fixed for hearing, and there is a ban on our meetings,” Barrister Safdar added.\n\nHe further added that the hearing of 14 petitions at once was a “sign of political targeting”.\n\nHe said that he was representing the incarcerated former premier in “more than 300 cases”.\n\n“Bails are pending before Judge Afzal Majoka in 58 cases,” he added.\n\nHe further said that there was a “special law that existed for the bail of a woman”.\n\nHe recalled that “a letter was written to the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) this month”.\n\nHowever, he added that the “IHC is not ready to fix any case for hearing”.\n\nHe maintained that IHC “had no standing at all”.\n\n“In such cases, the issue should be directed to the SC,” he said, adding that the IHC had been “reduced to a palace for show”.\n\nHe further said that the defence had “not yet even brought up medical ground in the court” for bail.\n\n“This does not mean that we should be kept in the dark about PTI founder’s health,” he added.\n\nSeparately, PTI leader Salman Akram Raja, speaking to the media, said that the party had “submitted a memorandum that cases were not being fixed in the IHC”.\n\n“The cases heard today were government cases, which were unnecessary,” he said.\n\n“The cases in which we are seeking relief have not yet been fixed,” the party leader said.\n\n“Khan _Sahib_ is not being allowed to meet us, and neither does he have any information regarding the facts,” he added.\n\n“This is completely unfair,” he said.\n\nHe said that they had been “given an incomplete medical report”.\n\n“We have no hope of getting justice at this point; however, we will keep knocking on the doors of the court,” he further said.\n\n* * *\n\n_More to follow_",
  "title": "SC rejects request for ‘immediate meeting’ with PTI founder Imran Khan"
}