By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD, Aug 19 (Reuters) – The Pakistani government challenged on Wednesday a Supreme Court order to move jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, a petition filed with the court showed.
The move could dash the hopes of Khan’s party and family, who have been calling for him to be given access to healthcare and visitation rights, and also spark public discontent over the treatment of the hugely popular cricketer-turned-politician.
Khan, 73, has been in jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven after he fell out with the country’s powerful military and was removed from office the previous year.
The Supreme Court order, seen by Reuters, had on Tuesday directed the government to move Khan to the private Shifa International Hospital in the capital Islamabad within two days. It also specified that he be given access to his personal physician.
“This order is not within four walls of the law,” Pakistan’s Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said in a video-recorded statement issued on Tuesday night.
In its petition, the government said moving a convicted felon to a private hospital based “on a report which does not disclose any condition requiring immediate medical treatment will severely disturb the whole criminal justice system.”
“If the interim order is not recalled it will open a flood gate of prisoners seeking similar relief, which under the prevalent law cannot be granted,” it added.
Khan’s sons have repeatedly expressed concern regarding his deteriorating health, while his lawyers have said he has lost significant vision in his right eye while in prison.
His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has welcomed the order, saying it should be implemented “immediately, fully, and without delay”.
ALL THAT MATTERED
The court order also directed the authorities to ensure a telephone call twice a week between Khan and his two sons, who live in London.
His younger son, Kasim, said his health was “all that mattered”.
“We hope the government adheres to the court orders…allows calls and issues our visas to Pakistan simply so we can come and see him,” he said in a statement shared with Reuters.
Kasim and his older brother Sulaiman — raised in Britain after Khan’s divorce from their mother, British socialite and filmmaker Jemima Goldsmith — have not seen their father since 2022 in the absence of a visa.
Since he lost power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, Khan has faced multiple cases, including over state gifts, instigating violent attacks on military and state installations, and an accusation of an unlawful marriage.
All convictions but one have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending. He denies wrongdoing.
PTI won power in 2018 and retains a large support base across key provinces but was stripped of its election symbol ahead of elections in 2024.
Its candidates, who were forced to contest as independents, won the most seats in the election but fell short of the majority needed to form a government.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Rick Noack and Saad Sayeed)
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