Pakistan govt challenges Imran Khan hospital move order
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Pakistan's government filed a Supreme Court review petition Wednesday — one day after the top court ordered Khan transferred from Adiala Jail to Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital within two days — arguing the court skipped procedures by acting without hearing prison authorities and warning other inmates could demand similar treatment.
- The Supreme Court order also directed a five-specialist medical board including Khan's sister Uzma Khan and personal physician Faisal Sultan, granted weekly family meetings, and allowed twice-weekly phone calls with Khan's two sons in London, while barring his family, PTI and lawyers from publicly discussing his health until the September 16 hearing.
- Imran Khan, 73, has been jailed since August 2023 following convictions in cases he and PTI describe as politically motivated; recurring concerns over vision in his right eye have driven repeated court appeals by his family and party.
- The government's stance publicly split on the same day: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary told the Senate officials would implement the order because PM Shehbaz Sharif had "no authority to go against judicial decisions," hours before Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar announced the review petition.
- PTI leaders Sheikh Waqas Akram and Zulfi Bukhari flagged the contradiction as government "hypocrisy" and division; Akram warned that until the court explicitly stays its decision, Khan must be moved as directed, calling non-compliance something that "only deepens hatred and makes reconciliation harder."
- After Tuesday's order, Khan's wife Bushra Bibi visited him with their two children at Adiala jail, and his sister Noreen Niazi made her first visit in nine months.
Why it matters: The government's own ministers publicly contradicted each other within hours — one pledging to obey the Supreme Court, another filing to overturn it — exposing an internal split that Khan's PTI immediately seized on. The September 16 hearing now determines whether Khan gets private hospital treatment and, with it, the gag order on his family and party discussing his health publicly.
Ask SkimNews
