A lawyer for former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday he was "being held in a small and dirty cell" as his defence team sought legal challenges against his three-year prison sentence on corruption charges, which he was disqualified from running in the election.
After the former cricketer star was removed from power by a vote of no confidence in April 2022, he was sentenced on Saturday to three years in prison on corruption charges he says are politically motivated. Khan was immediately arrested at his home in the city of Lahore and transferred to prison.
"I met Imran Khan, 70, in prison and he assured me that they had put him in a 'third degree' cell.
Pangotha added that it is a small room with an open toilet, filled with flies in the day and insects in the evening.
Political prisoners are entitled to stay in better "second-class" facilities with television, newspapers and books. A government spokesman and prison authorities did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the conditions where Khan is being held.
Imran Khan's spokesman Rauf Hassan said the former Pakistani prime minister was in high spirits despite the harsh conditions of his detention.
"Imran Khan is being held in poor conditions that are not worthy of any human being, but his morale is high and he told us to assure the people that I will not compromise on my principles," Hassan said.
The spokesman explained that Khan is being held in a cell where he sleeps on a mattress on the floor, with no space except for a prayer mat, and no daylight reaches him.
"Putting him in prison will not diminish his popularity," Hassan said, adding, "He is the leader of the people, and everything there requires the state to sit down and talk to him."
Judicial appeals
For his part, Al Jazeera correspondent said that Imran Khan's defense team submitted several requests to the Supreme Capital Court, foremost of which is his transfer from the prison of the town of Atak to a prison in the city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital Islamabad, in addition to improving prison conditions and raising them to a level worthy of a former prime minister, and allowing members of Khan's family to meet with him, as well as granting permission to Khan's private doctor to visit him and conduct medical examinations.
Al Jazeera correspondent also learned that Imran Khan's lawyers filed a lawsuit with the court to allow them to file a legal challenge to overturn a prison sentence and prevent him from practicing politics, as the verdict included a part that prevents Khan, who is convicted of misconduct with precious gifts given to him, from appealing the sentence.
At a court hearing that Khan did not attend on Saturday, the judge convicted him of corruption charges linked to gifts he received as prime minister and sentenced him to three years in prison.
Anyone convicted on a criminal charge is disqualified from running in Pakistan's elections, although several politicians, including current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have successfully overcome or overturned convictions and then led the country.
Parliament is due to be dissolved on Wednesday, days before the end of its term, giving the transitional government until mid-November to hold elections, but speculation is swirling that it could be postponed after the results of the country's last census last weekend.
Justice Minister Azzam Nazir Tarar told a local television channel that electoral districts would have to be redefined based on the new census, warning that this could lead to a postponement of the elections for up to two and a half months.
Khan's arrest and three-day detention in the same case in May sparked deadly violence when tens of thousands of his supporters took to the streets as clashes broke out with police.
Thousands of supporters of his Justice Movement party have been arrested as part of a wider security crackdown by the authorities.