ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party on Wednesday demanded his immediate transfer from jail to a private hospital under a Supreme Court order, saying the government must comply unless the ruling is modified, after authorities filed a petition challenging the directive.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Khan, 73, transferred from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to Shifa International Hospital for specialist examination and treatment, and directed that his personal physicians be involved in the medical process.
The Islamabad administration subsequently sought a review of the order, arguing that the court had bypassed prison rules governing the transfer of inmates for treatment and warning that allowing a convict access to a private hospital could prompt similarly placed prisoners to seek the same relief.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also said at a news conference on Wednesday that the government did not dispute Khan’s right to medical treatment but questioned whether a prisoner could demand treatment at a specified private hospital.
“Every prisoner has the right to be provided medical facilities according to the law. And they have been provided and will continue to be provided,” Tarar said. “But, can a private hospital be specified?”
Responding to the government’s position, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said any legal objections should be pursued before the court but did not suspend the existing directions.
“Unless and until the Supreme Court modifies its order, the existing directions remain binding upon the authorities concerned and must be implemented without unnecessary delay,” Akram said in a statement.
“If the government had legal or medical objections, the appropriate forum to raise them was before the Court.”
Akram questioned the government’s assertion that Khan had been receiving adequate medical care in prison.
“If the medical care available in Adiala Jail was as comprehensive and satisfactory ... they should explain why the medical material placed before the Supreme Court led the Court to order his transfer to Shifa International Hospital for specialist examination and treatment,” he said.
Concern over Khan’s health intensified in January after he was diagnosed with central retinal vein occlusion in his right eye, a blockage that can cause serious or permanent vision loss. He was subsequently taken twice to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment.
Prison authorities have told the Supreme Court that Khan’s vision has returned to “almost normal” and that he has been regularly examined by government doctors.
Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been imprisoned since August 2023 and faces a series of convictions and other legal cases that he and his party say are politically motivated. The government denies persecuting him.
