ISLAMABAD  -  The Core Committee of opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday demanded the lifting of a ban on visits of incarcerated party leader Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

The committee, which met here, called on the authorities that lawyers, family members and a personal physician should be allowed to meet former prime minister Khan in jail.

The government has imposed a ban on all visits of prisoners in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail since October 5 while citing security threats. The order affects the PTI leader and his wife as both have been detained in the same prison on corruption charges. The meeting that was attended by senior party leadership also discussed a comprehensive strategy to bring the former prime minister out of jail.

The participants agreed to form subcommittees to prepare and plan for a countrywide mass movement to protest against the detention of Khan and passage of the controversial 26th Constitutional Amendment. The leadership held that the passage of controversial amendment from both incomplete houses of the parliament through coercion and horse-trading was not acceptable for them. The meeting gave the task to the legal committee to look into the option of challenging the amendment before the superior judiciary.

The moot condemned the alleged bad treatment being given to Imran Khan’s sisters, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, as well as senior party leader Azam Swati, while in jail. They also demanded immediate recovery of Intizar Hussain Panjhuta, a PTI lawyer and focal person of party founder, who had gone missing from Islamabad more than two weeks ago.

The Core Committee endorsed the decision of the Political Committee to boycott the proceedings of the special parliamentary committee that nominated the next chief justice of Pakistan in the light of the recently passed “black” amendment.

It also endorsed the decision of the Political Committee to issue show cause notices to those party lawmakers whose loyalties with the party are under question on the issue of the constitutional amendment. It also paid tributes to those MNAs and senators who stood with the party in “these testing times” despite offers of bribe and repression.

The meeting decided that the Political Committee will meet twice a week and the Core Committee once in a week.