Rawalpindi: The journey of District Jail Rawalpindi to Adiala Jail has completed 142 years, this jail has changed 4 locations so far and many former prime ministers of Pakistan have been imprisoned here.
A century and a half ago, Rawalpindi Jail was at Committee Chowk Teli Mohalla Road Triangle, then for a short time it was in the current Education Department Secretariat and in 1882, Rawalpindi Jail was at the current Jinnah Park, Judicial Complex location. The jail remained here for 104 years. It was a historic jail in which the freedom fighters of the Pakistan Movement were also arrested from Lahore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Deccan, Indian Punjab, Dhaka, Chittagong and imprisoned here by the British government.
Allama Mashriqi was also imprisoned in this old jail. After Bhutto’s execution, General Zia-ul-Haq decided to build a new jail to erase its historical status. In 1988, this jail was completely demolished and Jinnah Park was built here, and Central Jail Rawalpindi was built near Adiala village.
Adiala Jail initially had a capacity of 1927 prisoners, which increased to 3500. Currently, there are more than 6,000 prisoners. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi of Lashkar-e-Taiba, former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Maryam Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif, Asaf Zardari, Ayyan Ali, Mumtaz Qadri, American actor Eric Anthony (drug case) were also imprisoned.
Today, this jail is famous for the imprisonment of the founding chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, and his wife Bushra Bibi.
