By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led government said on Tuesday it would ask the Supreme Court to modify an order directing the transfer of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital for medical treatment, setting up a fresh legal confrontation with his party just hours after the ruling was handed down.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the government had reviewed the court’s order and concluded that key elements of it fell outside the legal framework governing medical facilities for convicted prisoners. He said officials would ask the court to allow Khan to be assessed at a state-run hospital instead.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered Adiala Jail authorities to move Khan to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad within two days for medical assessment and treatment, a ruling that granted a demand his family and party had pressed for months amid growing concern over his eyesight and general health.
Khan, 73, has been imprisoned since August 2023 on convictions he and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party maintain were politically motivated. He has faced a succession of legal cases since he was removed from office in April 2022 following a no-confidence vote in parliament.
Concern over his health intensified in January, when he was diagnosed with central retinal vein occlusion in his right eye, a blockage of the vein that drains blood from the retina, which his lawyers said could result in permanent vision loss if left untreated. He was taken from Adiala Jail to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad on 24 January, where the government said he underwent a 20-minute procedure with his consent.
PTI and Khan’s family disputed the government’s account of that transfer, saying they had not been informed in advance and accusing the authorities of shutting his relatives, lawyers and personal doctors out of decisions about his care. Khan was taken to the same hospital again in February for a second injection to treat the eye condition, prompting renewed criticism from his party over what it called secrecy surrounding his treatment.
Prison authorities told the Supreme Court this week that Khan’s vision had returned to “almost normal” and that he had been examined regularly by government doctors. A medical board report submitted ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, however, recorded fluctuations in his blood pressure and signs of anxiety, and recommended more contact with his immediate family and spouse, along with exercise and access to reading material and television.
Ruling on petitions filed by Khan, his sister Dr Uzma Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja, the Supreme Court directed officials to work with the management of Shifa International Hospital to form a medical board made up of a physician, a general surgeon, an internal medicine specialist, an eye specialist and a cardiologist to examine and treat Khan.
Setting out the government’s objections in a video statement, Tarar said the order raised difficulties because it did not sit within existing prison law. “The authorities are of the view that this order does not fall within the parameters of the law governing the facilities that can be provided to a convicted person under the applicable prison laws,” he said.
He said the question of a prisoner’s medical treatment was normally decided by a medical board, which determines whether care can be provided within the jail or whether the prisoner needs to be transferred to hospital — and if so, to a government facility rather than a private one. “Until evidence is received that government hospitals are unable to provide the required treatment, such arrangements are not made,” he said.
Tarar argued that granting one prisoner treatment at a private hospital raised the risk of similar demands from the thousands of other inmates in Pakistan’s jails who also have health problems. He said medical specialists could still be brought in to treat Khan, but maintained that this could be done at a government hospital rather than a private one, and that the government intended to ask the court for “suitable modifications” to bring the order in line with constitutional and legal requirements.
Despite raising objections to elements of the ruling, senior government figures moved quickly to stress that the order would be carried out. Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told the Senate that the government would implement the Supreme Court’s decision in full, describing it as evidence of judicial independence. “The prime minister has no authority to go against judicial decisions,” he said, adding that the government had itself benefited from court relief in the past and condemning what he called a campaign of hostility toward the judiciary.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah told reporters outside Parliament House that the court’s ruling was independent and decided strictly on its merits. The PML-N senator suggested PTI had been slow to pursue legal avenues, and argued that relief would have come sooner had the party turned to the courts earlier. He called on PTI to respect judicial decisions even when they did not go in the party’s favour, and repeated that the prime minister’s offer of talks with the opposition remained open, though it had yet to draw a response.
PTI lawmakers welcomed the court’s decision in the Senate while pressing for similar relief for other jailed party leaders. Senator Azam Swati said it was “very welcome” that Khan was being moved to Shifa International Hospital, and thanked the government, saying the two sides should work together to resolve outstanding issues. Senator Faisal Javed also called the ruling welcome and thanked the court, adding that responsibility for carrying it out now rested with the administration, and that other detained PTI figures should be granted similar relief.
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