Authorities refuse journalist’s request to meet Imran Khan.
Journalist approaches Mohsin Naqvi for permission to see Khan.
Glass has extensively written on conflict in the Middle East.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reportedly deported British journalist Charles Glass after he was denied permission to meet incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, News reported quoting sources on Wednesday.
The US-origin British journalist was taken to the airport from a house in the federal capital after the authorities cancelled his visa, said the sources.
The veteran journalist had sought permission from Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi through email to meet the PTI founder. The journalist informed the minister that he was not allowed to meet the PTI founder in jail despite the court’s order.
The PTI founder has been jailed for almost year now after he was put behind bars on August 5 last year after he was booked in multiple cases ranging from terrorism to corruption, with Khan denying all charges levelled against him.
A day earlier, the 72-year-old cricketer-turned-politician expressed his willingness to hold talks with the military in a bid to defuse the political crisis that gripped the country following his ouster in a no-trust vote in April 2022.
The alleged deportation came four days after the journalist, who is said to be a friend of the PTI founder, revealed that he was barred from meeting Khan in prison.
The journalist, who arrived in Islamabad last week to see imprisoned Khan, had told the media: “I am here [in Pakistan] as a friend of Imran Khan, and not as a lawyer or an activist.”
Glass wrote an article on the World Press Freedom Day in May this year in support of Julian Assange and Imran Khan’s release, arguing that both were put behind bars for defying the United States.
However, WikiLeaks founder Assange was freed on June 25 this year from the UK’s high-security Belmarsh prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified documents of the US government.
As a journalist and author, Glass has extensively written on conflict in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe for the past 45 years. One of his books is Soldiers Don’t Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War.