By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday raised objections to an application seeking the transfer of former prime minister Imran Khan from jail to a hospital for treatment of an eye ailment.
The application was filed on Feb. 25 by PTI lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa after Khan underwent government-facilitated follow-up treatment for his eye condition. Khosa, appearing with fellow lawyer Naeem Panjotha before Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, requested the court schedule a hearing on the application. Chief Justice Afridi told the lawyers that the application had been returned with objections a day earlier. “Your petitions will remain pending until further orders,” he said. “There is no such application at the moment, on which proceedings can be held.”
Khosa informed the chief justice that the PTI counsels had requested an early hearing, adding that the court had ordered the former premier’s treatment. Chief Justice Afridi said the court had not issued any such order; rather, it was the government that had given assurances for the treatment. “You should read the court’s decision again as the health issue is not pending,” he remarked.
Khosa said the transfer application was made “not on legal or political but humanitarian grounds”. Chief Justice Afridi held that the former premier’s recent medical check-up was carried out on “humanitarian grounds”. “Please try to understand what I am saying,” Khosa insisted, at which Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan remarked, “I have known you since 1992, I understand everything you are saying”. “Khosa sahib, you are a senior lawyer, you understand the procedure,” the chief justice said, directing Khosa to meet the Supreme Court registrar. “If the SC registrar does not give a copy of the objections, then you may come to court,” Chief Justice Afridi said. “If the order was issued yesterday, then how did no one inform us?” Khosa said.
A source said PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan also met Chief Justice Afridi and sought the transfer of the incarcerated former premier to a hospital, citing family and party concerns about his health. He was told the Supreme Court would not interfere while his cases remained pending before the Islamabad High Court. Khan, who is imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, has been the focus of health concerns in recent days, with his family and party raising alarms since his diagnosis with right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) in late January.
A doctor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences said Khan was brought to the hospital for follow-up treatment on Feb. 24. His party took exception to the government’s “secrecy” regarding the treatment. The application named the Islamabad district election commissioner as the respondent, as it invoked the Toshakhana case in which Khan was first arrested on Aug. 5, 2023. It requested that Khan be “immediately shifted to Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, for proper treatment of his eyes from a retina specialist”.
The plea also sought his access to personal physicians Dr Faisal Sultan and Dr Aasim Yusuf “who may be associated with all the procedures of examination and treatment”. In the application, Khosa highlighted that Khan was 73 years old, adding that “his advancing age and declining health are matters of grave concern not only for his family but for the people of Pakistan at large”. “The conduct of a medical examination in secrecy, without notice to the family or independent doctors, has given rise to serious apprehensions,” he contended.
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