The Pakistan government is set to challenge the Supreme Court’s order directing the transfer of former Prime Minister Imran Khan from Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the government would file a review petition against the order, arguing that Pakistan‘s prison rules require a medical board to first determine whether a prisoner can be treated inside jail or needs hospital care. He also raised questions over the decision to send Khan to a private hospital, particularly whether the same option would be available to other prisoners.
Tarar said that under the applicable prison rules, medical boards determine whether treatment should be provided inside a prison or whether a prisoner needs to be shifted to a hospital. Where hospitalisation is required, prisoners are generally treated at government hospitals.
GOVERNMENT QUESTIONS HOSPITAL TRANSFER
The Supreme Court had ordered Imran Khan’s transfer to Shifa International Hospital within two days, granting a demand that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and family had been pursuing for months.
This comes as Khan, 73, remains imprisoned at Adiala jail, where he has been held since August 2023 after being convicted in several cases. Khan and his party have repeatedly rejected the cases against him as politically motivated.
The Supreme Court’s decision followed concerns over Khan’s health and the adequacy of medical care available to him in prison. Khan’s lawyer, Uzair Bhandari, said the three-member bench had ordered his transfer to Shifa International Hospital and directed that a medical board be formed to oversee his treatment.
The court also ordered that Khan’s family be allowed to meet him at the hospital and that he be permitted to speak with his sons, who live abroad. Bhandari said Khan should remain hospitalised until at least the next hearing, scheduled for September 16.
The Supreme Court ruling was welcomed by Khan’s party, which has long demanded that he receive treatment outside prison and be allowed access to doctors of his own choosing.
He said that PTI had consistently sought Khan’s transfer to Shifa International Hospital and access to his personal doctors.
The demand had previously faced resistance in the courts.
Courts had rejected similar transfer requests twice since February. One of those rulings by the Islamabad High Court directed that a medical board assess Khan’s condition instead. Government officials have maintained that Khan’s transfer would require judicial approval and could not simply be ordered through executive action.
– Ends
Source link
[ad_3]
