Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday directed authorities to shift jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital for a comprehensive medical examination, ordering the transfer to be carried out within the next few days. A three member bench of the apex court passed the order while hearing a batch of petitions seeking the hospitalisation of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf founder and demanding that he be allowed regular meetings with his family, according to local media reports.
The bench held that the directive was necessitated by concerns over Khan’s health and by the constitutional guarantee of the right to life, which the court said extends to timely access to proper medical facilities. Alongside the hospital transfer, the judges also ordered that Khan be permitted weekly meetings with his family members and directed the constitution of a dedicated medical board to oversee his treatment. That board is to include his personal physician as well as his sister, Uzma Khan, ensuring both professional and family oversight of his care going forward.
The ruling came a day after the Superintendent of Adiala jail, where Khan has remained incarcerated since August 2023, submitted a formal report to the Supreme Court detailing the former premier’s health condition. The submission appears to have weighed heavily on the bench’s decision to act, given the specificity with which the court laid out both the timeline for the transfer and the composition of the oversight board.
The order lands against a backdrop of sustained international concern over the conditions of Khan’s detention. Last month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, flagged worries over reports that Khan was being denied adequate access to medical care while in custody. Her intervention added international weight to petitions already before Pakistan’s courts from Khan’s family and party colleagues, who have for months pressed for greater transparency around his health and prison conditions.
Khan, a former international cricket captain who led Pakistan to World Cup glory before entering politics, served as prime minister from 2018 until his removal through a no confidence vote in 2022. He has remained in custody since his conviction in 2023 on charges his supporters describe as politically motivated, and PTI has repeatedly called for his release and unrestricted access to medical treatment. Tuesday’s court order marks one of the more concrete interventions yet by the judiciary on the question of his welfare, though it stops short of addressing the broader legal battles still pending around his continued detention.
