The Pakistani government challenged on Wednesday a Supreme Court order to move jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private hospital, a petition filed with the court showed.
Khan’s sons have repeatedly expressed concern regarding his deteriorating health, while his lawyers have said he has lost significant vision in his right eye while in prison. Its candidates, who were forced to contest as independents, won the most seats in the election but fell short of the majority needed to form a government. It also specified that he be given access to his personal physician.
“This order is not within four walls of the law,” Pakistan’s Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said in a video-recorded statement issued on Tuesday night. In its petition, the government said moving a convicted felon to a private hospital based “on a report which does not disclose any condition requiring immediate medical treatment will severely disturb the whole criminal justice system. His younger son, Kasim, said his 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.
The Supreme Court order, seen by Reuters, had on Tuesday directed the government to move Khan to the private Shifa International Hospital in the capital Islamabad within two days.
