ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party on Wednesday criticized the government’s legal pushback against a court order to shift the jailed premier to a private hospital, with a top PTI official saying the party would file a contempt-of-court petition if the government didn’t move Khan to hospital by Thursday.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Khan, who is the founder of PTI, be immediately transferred from Adiala Jail to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital for comprehensive medical examinations, following reports concerning his health and prolonged detention conditions.
In response, the federal government and Islamabad administration filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that the directive bypassed standard prison protocols under section 197 of the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978, and raised concerns regarding equity for other prisoners.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja dismissed the challenges.
“You see the filing of the review petition [by the government] means nothing. Anybody can file anything. The order of the Supreme Court (to move Khan to hospital) stands,” he said, warning of legal consequences if the administration failed to act upon court orders.
“It has to be complied with. If they don’t comply with it by tomorrow afternoon, they would be in contempt of court. We would go back to court with a contempt application and I think the people of Pakistan will not accept this.”
Raja said the attempts to stall the process to move Khan to hospital were “politically motivated.”
“So it’s senseless if anybody is thinking of violating the court order to further aggravate the political atmosphere in the country,” he said, adding that he was confident that the government will comply with court order.
Asked about government assertions that treating Khan at a private facility constitutes an unearned privilege unavailable to ordinary inmates, Raja defended the “necessity of the judicial intervention” and pointed to long delays in medical care.
“See it’s the court’s discretion. The way Mr.Khan has been treated is unlike how ordinary prisoners are treated,” he said, adding that the ex-premier has been kept in isolation for over nine months now.
“He complained of an ailment in his eye as far back as August 2025. No proper examination was carried out before January 16, 2026. This was a delay of 4.5 months. A criminal delay of 4.5 months.”
Stressing the urgency of an independent medical evaluation, Raja said it is imperative that Khan is examined at a hospital of high standing, in which his family and personal physicians have confidence.
“He is the leader of this country. He is a former prime minister... So given these circumstances, the court has made the correct order,” he said.
PARTY TO CONTINUE PROTESTS
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.
PTI, which retains a large support base despite Khan’s imprisonment, announced a protest campaign this month to demand Khan’s release, with rallies across Pakistan on Aug. 5 marking three years since his arrest.
Raja said that PTI’s broader protest agenda remained unchanged, despite the legal developments.
“That is a process that we feel is necessary for the restoration of democracy, independence of the judiciary, the restoration of human rights in this country,” he said of the protest campaign.
“That is a much bigger objective that we are fighting for.”
Separately, Sohail Afridi, chief minister of the PTI-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has announced a long march toward Islamabad on Sept. 27.
“We are fighting for the soul of this nation. So, that will continue unless we see a change in attitudes, unless we see a sincere desire in the system to revert back to constitutionalism, rule of law, the grant of human rights,” Raja said.
“At the moment, we do not see that.”
The government has in the past accused the party of trying to destabilize the country through protests, an allegation denied by PTI.
TALKS WITH ESTABLISHMENT, NEW PROVINCES
Regarding backchannel talks with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, Raja clarified that while parliamentary channels remain open, no such negotiations were taking place regarding their core political deadlock.
“With the establishment, is there some formal dialogue underway? No. So, that is not the case. We are open to conversations on the principles that are being trampled over, that are being violated at the moment in this country for the rule of law, for the restoration of the constitution. We will keep our doors open. But are we actively involved in any negotiation at the moment? The answer is no,” he said.
The party has been in a deadlock with the government over 2024 general election results, mass arrest of its supporters and alleged efforts to keep the ex-PM out of politics among other issues.
Asked if they would support the idea floated by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on carving out new provinces, Raja said his party was in favor of the devolution of authority.
Naqvi last month called for creating new administrative units to bring government closer to citizens, arguing that the country’s governance system had “collapsed” and required broader political consensus to reset it.
“We welcome that. We have always maintained Mr. Imran Khan has always maintained that power should be exercised at a subsidiary level, close to the people, so that their needs can be addressed at their doorstep,” Raja told Arab News.
“That is a conversation we are certainly willing to have.”
He, however, said the party would not “give up on its principles.”
“We will not give up on the integrity of the constitutional process, on the integrity of the process of amendment to the constitution and the rights of the provinces with respect to their territories,” he said.
“All of those things have to be made a part of a democratic process of a dialogue which is carried out with the actual representatives of the people and Mr. Imran Khan has to be central to that dialogue.”
