By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A bitter dispute over the medical treatment of Imran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister, spilled into the country’s Senate on Tuesday, as lawmakers from the government and the opposition accused each other of defying a Supreme Court order meant to guarantee his care.
The clash centered on a court directive issued Aug. 18, when Pakistan’s apex court ordered authorities to transfer Khan from Adiala jail to Shifa International Hospital, a private facility in Islamabad, and to convene a medical board that would include his sister and personal physician. Instead, officials took Khan to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a government-run hospital, citing security concerns. After a medical board there declared him fit, he was returned to jail.
The discrepancy between what the court ordered and what the government did has become a flashpoint in Pakistan’s fractured political landscape, where Khan, founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, has remained jailed on multiple charges since his 2023 ouster.
The argument on the Senate floor began when Shahadat Awan, the presiding officer, blocked an attempt by the opposition to introduce a formal resolution on the matter, ruling that the issue was still before the courts and could only be addressed through a point of order. He is a senator with the Pakistan Peoples Party, a coalition partner in the government.
Barrister Ali Zafar, the PTI’s parliamentary leader, rose anyway to press the issue, framing it as a test of the Senate’s commitment to constitutional government.
“Neither was he taken to Shifa Hospital nor was a board constituted,” Zafar told his colleagues, adding that even basic equipment to monitor Khan’s heart had been unavailable at the government hospital. He invoked Articles 190 and 204 of Pakistan’s Constitution, which require compliance with court rulings and classify defiance as contempt.
“Can any government refuse to implement a Supreme Court order? No, it cannot,” Zafar said. He accused the ruling coalition of treating a binding judicial order with disregard, and urged colleagues to separate their views on Khan’s politics from the question of his medical care. “You may oppose Imran Khan’s politics. Do that. But do not play politics with his health,” he said. “Governments come and go, but the Constitution remains.”
Azam Swati, another PTI senator, went further, accusing the government of selectively applying the law. He pointed to the treatment of Nawaz Sharif, the sitting prime minister’s brother and former premier, who received institutional accommodations during his own legal proceedings in years past. “When someone has to be given a benefit, relief is provided in judicial matters,” Swati said.
Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, offered the government’s defence, insisting that officials had acted within the bounds of the court’s order and that responsibility for interpreting compliance rested with the judiciary, not with lawmakers.
“The court also said security arrangements would be assessed by the administration,” Sanaullah said, adding that deteriorating law and order conditions had prompted the decision to take Khan to a government facility staffed by qualified physicians.
He said Khan had, in fact, been brought toward Shifa Hospital but was diverted to the government facility at the last moment because of security concerns outside the private hospital, and that the government intended to present evidence documenting the threat to the court. A medical panel, he said, had examined Khan and found his condition satisfactory before he was returned to custody. Sanaullah added that the government would submit its formal report to the court by Sept. 16, and that judges — not senators — should determine whether the order had been properly carried out.
He also pushed back on the opposition’s framing of the episode, questioning why PTI lawmakers seemed intent on portraying Khan as gravely ill when his own doctors and relatives had described his health as stable. “Do not do politics on health,” Sanaullah said. “If you are telling us not to, then you should also refrain.”
Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, the Senate’s opposition leader, called on the government to act with what he termed “magnanimity” and comply with the court’s ruling fully. He proposed forming a Senate committee to visit Adiala jail and assess conditions firsthand. “Politics and politicians are being crushed,” he said. “It is not too late. There is no benefit in contempt of court.”
The PTI has since escalated the dispute into the courts themselves, filing a contempt petition with the Supreme Court over what the party describes as a violation of the Aug. 18 order. Gohar Khan, the PTI’s chairman, told reporters Tuesday near Adiala Road in Rawalpindi that the party’s petition had already been assigned a case number, and that the party had requested an expedited hearing.
Speaking at a checkpoint near the jail, Gohar said plans to transfer the former prime minister to Shifa Hospital had been altered abruptly, without explanation to the PTI beforehand. “Whoever changed the plan at the last moment did wrong,” he said, adding that the party believed it had been close to securing meaningful progress in Khan’s case before the reversal.
Gohar disputed the government’s security rationale, saying officials never raised specific concerns about Shifa Hospital with the PTI in advance. He said the party’s own leadership had, in fact, instructed members not to gather at the hospital, and confirmed that Khan’s sister had told the party he was taken to the government facility instead. He was responding in part to comments from Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, the federal minister for parliamentary affairs, who had cited security conditions as the reason for the change.
Gohar characterized the PTI’s Supreme Court filing as a civil contempt matter tied strictly to enforcement of the existing order, and maintained that the party itself had not violated any judicial directive. He said he remained hopeful the original order could still be carried out. “If those who need to listen are listening,” he said.
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