The federal government has decided to ask the Supreme Court to modify its order transferring Imran Khan to Shifa International Hospital, arguing he should instead be assessed at a government hospital (Geo News).
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said in a video statement that the order had been studied and that some of its points concerned the prison authorities and the Islamabad administration, which had been consulted.
His legal argument rests on the prison rules. “The authorities believe the SC order does not fall within the legal framework meant for providing facilities to a convicted person under prison laws,” he said. Under the law, he explained, a medical board decides whether a prisoner is treated inside the jail or moved out; if the board recommends treatment outside, the prisoner goes to a government hospital. “Until evidence is received that government hospitals are unable to provide the required treatment, such arrangements are not made.”
He also made the equity argument directly: if one prisoner is taken to a private hospital, there are thousands of other prisoners with health problems.
The counter-argument sits in the court’s own reasoning. The bench ordered the transfer after reading the Adiala superintendent’s report as showing Khan’s pulse and heart condition were not normal and that vital organs had begun to be affected — and after Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan noted the report’s own recommendation for an angiography, which the Islamabad advocate general accepted could not be performed inside the prison. The court also demanded the complete medical record rather than the summary it had been given.
The three-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed ordered on Tuesday that Khan be shifted within two days and remain at Shifa International until the next hearing on September 16, with a five-specialist medical board, his sister Dr Uzma Khan and personal physician Dr Faisal Sultan attending, and his family bearing the costs.
The PTI welcomed that order and, notably, asked its workers to stay away. In a post on X the party called on them to fully respect the court’s directives and to avoid gathering outside the hospital, saying the appeal was made in the interest of Khan’s health and treatment (Geo News). It said the order had strengthened its fundamental demand that Khan receive the best possible medical care.
That restraint is consistent with the court’s own warning that any violation of its directions could see the facilities withdrawn, and its instruction that his medical report not be used for political purposes.
Khan, 73, has been in prison since August 2023. All but one of his convictions have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending, and he denies wrongdoing.
He had not been moved at the time of writing. The two-day deadline set by the court expires on Thursday.
