‘This order is not within four walls of the law’: Pakistan govt to challenge SC’s order to move Imran Khan to private hospital
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "‘This order is not within four walls of the law’: Pakistan govt to challenge SC’s order to move Imran Khan to private hospital")
File image for representation Photograph: (AFP)
Pakistan’s government plans to challenge a Supreme Court order to transfer jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, arguing legal provisions only allow public hospital treatment.
Pakistan’s government will challenge a Supreme Court order directing authorities to move jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said. The court on Tuesday (Aug 18) ordered the government to transfer Khan to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad within two days and allow him access to his personal physician. It also directed authorities to facilitate telephone calls twice a week between Khan and his two sons, who live in London.
Tarar said the government had reviewed the ruling and decided to seek a reconsideration of the order. “This order is not within four walls of the law,” Tarar said in a video statement issued on Tuesday night. He said the law required convicted prisoners to receive treatment either inside prison or at a public hospital. The government will seek a modification of the court’s order through its review appeal, he added.
The decision could disappoint Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and his family, who have repeatedly called for better access to healthcare and visitation rights for the former prime minister.
Khan, 73, has been imprisoned in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since August 2023 after being convicted in several cases. He has denied wrongdoing and said the cases against him are politically motivated, following his falling-out with Pakistan’s powerful military and his removal as prime minister in 2022.
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PTI welcomed the Supreme Court’s order and called for it to be implemented “immediately, fully, and without delay”. Khan’s younger son, Kasim, said his father’s 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.
