Describing Imran Khan as a "darling of the courts", Pakistan's caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti has said that the facilities provided to the former prime minister in prison were not given to any premier and a common citizen cannot even imagine them.
The 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman is currently detained in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi after being arrested in the leakage of the cipher (secret diplomatic cable) case.
In an interview with the Independent Urdu published today, Bugti said: The facilities provided to him (Khan) are more than those provided to an ordinary prisoner or a prime minister behind bars as he is, after all, a laadla (darling) of the courts."
The kind of facilities being provided to him in jail, they weren't given to any prime minister and a common citizen cannot even imagine them, he said.
The caretaker interior minister also mentioned former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial's good to see you remarks for Khan, saying that such instances strengthen his argument.
We direly need judicial reforms here, he said.
Bandial made these remarks during Khan's appearance before the Supreme Court after his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case sparked violent protests by his supporters on May 9.
Bandial later clarified that it was part of court etiquette and carried no political connotation.
Asked about the special court's directives to present the ex-premier and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi before the court on November 28 in the cipher case, Bugti said he would follow the court orders to the letter.
In the cipher case, Khan and Qureshi are accused of violating the secrecy laws of the country.
The caretaker interior minister further said that most of the cases filed against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif were baseless, but at the same time asserted that no favours were being given to the party.