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Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Updated 18 Mar, 2015 01:55pm

A room with a charpoy — Ayyan's days in Adiala jail

Correction: A previous version of the story stated that Ayyan was allowed to meet her relatives. However, the supermodel has not yet been permitted to meet her family.


As a category B inmate in the Adiala Jail, notorious for housing terrorists and high profile criminals among its 4,500 inmates, supermodel Ayyan enjoys the selective privileges that celebdom affords.

A natural beneficiary of the ubiquitous ‘VIP culture’, Ayyan has been provided a room of her own in the ladies barracks of the jail, as well as a female helper who cleans and fetches meals.

While the special treatment afforded to Ayyan is just a notch below the privileges enjoyed by 'category A' detainees, a term used by jail authorities for ‘VVIPs’, her room in the jail includes a charpoy for her to sleep on.

All inmates at Adiala jail are allowed to send for food, and Ayyan is no exception. She is being provided food and water from outside the jail.

The one-time Magnum and Ufone ambassador does not have access to a mobile phone, internet or television as the jail has jammers in place which block communications for a perimeter of up to six kilometers.

Ayyan was catching flight EK-651 to Dubai in the early hours of Saturday when she was detained by airport security. The scanners had picked up irregularities with her luggage, and customs officials soon discovered a sum of $506,800 in her bag. Ironically, Ayyan had released a number titled 'Making Dollars' just five months prior to her arrest.

Read: Making Dollars — Pakistani model Ayyan releases new song

It is routine procedure for those being detained and taken into custody to undergo a medical checkup before they are moved to jail. To this end, Ayyan was transported to Rawalpindi District Headquarters Hospital for a checkup where she reportedly was met by Khalid Malik, brother of Rehman Malik. Khalid Malik had reportedly intended to be on the same flight Ayyan was boarding.

According to hospital sources, Khalid Malik and other ‘important people’ exerted a great deal of pressure on hospital authorities to tamper with the supermodel’s health reports so that she could be kept at the hospital for as long as possible on the pretext of being taken ill.

However, hospital personnel resisted pressure tactics and sent her on to jail when they found that her blood pressure and ultrasound were clear.

She was transported to court by an official customs vehicle, a white double cabin Toyota Vigo.

Read more: No bail for Ayyan in money laundering case

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