Arya News - Government files a review of Supreme Court order, arguing that the jailed ex-PM should be examined at a public hospital.
Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has challenged a Supreme Court order to move jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private hospital for medical treatment.
The office of the chief commissioner in capital Islamabad filed a review petition on Wednesday, a day after the top court ordered prison authorities to move Khan from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital within two days.
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The court also allowed Khan weekly family meetings and phone calls twice a week with his two sons who live in London, as it barred Khan’s family, political party and lawyers from discussing his health publicly until the case is heard again on September 16.
But the government’s petition argued that the court skipped legal procedures by ordering Khan’s transfer without first hearing from the prison authorities, and warned that other prisoners could demand similar treatment.
Khan, 73, has been in jail since August 2023 after his conviction in several cases he and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party say were politically motivated. Over the past year, concerns over his health, particularly the vision in his right eye , have driven repeated appeals to the courts by his family and the party.
After the court’s order, Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, met him with their two children at Adiala jail. Khan’s other sister, Noreen Niazi, also briefly met him in her first visit in nine months.
The government’s review petition followed a video statement on Tuesday night by federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, who said the government wanted Khan examined at a public hospital.
“This order does not fall within the legal parameters governing the facilities that can be provided to a convicted person in jail,” he said in a post on X, arguing that prison rules require a medical board, not a court, to decide between jail and hospital treatment.
Shifa International Hospital is one of Islamabad’s top private medical facilities [Reuters] Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday accused Khan’s PTI of having politicised the health of its rivals in the past. “History is witness that PTI people politicised the health of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s leadership,” he said during a televised news conference.
“Our leadership never said a word about the [PTI] founder’s health,” he said. “This is a legal matter. There should be no politics over it.”
But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary told the Senate the government would implement the court order, saying Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had “no authority to go against judicial decisions” – a position at odds with the government’s review petition announced only hours later.
Senior PTI leader Sheikh Waqas Akram said the contradiction in the government’s stand revealed its “hypocrisy”.
“On one hand, they say they will respect the court’s verdict, so why are they now objecting to it?” he told Al Jazeera.
“Days before the verdict, government officials were messaging our leaders that [PM] Shehbaz Sharif wants to talk,” Akram added. “And now, after the court decision, they want to file a review petition? Why are they doing this?”
Zulfi Bukhari, another senior PTI leader, said the government’s own ranks appeared divided over the Supreme Court order.
“There is certainly confusion among their camp,” he told Al Jazeera. “Some are trying to take it with grace and enforce the Supreme Court decision in letter and spirit, while others see it as a huge threat.”
Bukhari said if the government’s review petition was rejected, Khan would have to be shifted to a private hospital immediately. In case it was accepted, he added, the PTI would “take up the matter legally”.
But Akram said a review petition does not suspend Tuesday’s court order.
“Until the court explicitly stays its own decision, Imran Khan must be moved to the hospital as directed,” he said, warning that failing to implement it “only deepens hatred and makes reconciliation harder”.