PTI: Pakistan defied court order on Imran Khan hospital move
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- Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered Imran Khan transferred to Shifa International Hospital by midnight Thursday from Adiala jail, but he was instead taken to PIMS, examined for hours, and returned to his cell by 5am Friday without ever setting foot inside Shifa
- Khan's sister Uzma Khanum and personal physician Faisal Sultan said officials gave conflicting accounts throughout the night, with Sultan kept waiting at Shifa for three hours before being told Khan was 'not going to make it here'; Sultan was never present for the actual exam
- Information Minister Attaullah Tarar defended the switch to PIMS citing security concerns from PTI workers; PTI countered that it had instructed workers to stay away and alleged sending Sultan to Shifa was a deliberate decoy while Khan was taken to PIMS in a separate convoy
- PTI accused the government of contempt of court and announced it is filing a contempt petition; the case returns to court September 16
- Khan, jailed since August 2023 on convictions his party calls politically driven, compared his treatment to that of Mohamed Morsi — Egypt's former president who died after collapsing in court following years in detention
- PTI's internal messaging fractured this week when senior leader Zulfikar Bukhari told Reuters Khan would not confront army chief Asim Munir if freed, drawing a sharp rebuke from another senior PTI figure who said only Khan can authorize such a shift
Why it matters: PTI is filing contempt proceedings against the government for defying a direct Supreme Court transfer order — and Khan's physician, specifically named in the order, was kept from the exam, suggesting the executive is testing the judiciary's enforcement power with the case returning September 16. Khan's invocation of the Mohamed Morsi death-in-custody precedent elevates the medical-access fight from a legal dispute to a humanitarian flashpoint.
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