Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has filed a review petition against a Supreme Court order to transfer jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private hospital for medical treatment. The office of the chief commissioner in Islamabad submitted the petition on Wednesday, a day after the top court directed prison authorities to move Khan from Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail to Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital within two days.

The Supreme Court had ordered the formation of a medical board comprising five specialists and allowed Khan's sister, Uzma Khan, and his personal physician, Faisal Sultan, to participate in his treatment. The court also permitted weekly family meetings and phone calls twice a week with his two sons residing in London, while barring Khan's family, political party, and lawyers from publicly discussing his health until the case is heard again on September 16.

However, the government's petition argued that the court bypassed legal procedures by ordering Khan's transfer without first hearing from prison authorities, and warned that other prisoners could demand similar treatment.

Khan, 73, has been in jail since August 2023 after convictions in several cases he and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party claim were politically motivated. Over the past year, concerns over his health, particularly vision in his right eye, have driven repeated court appeals by his family and party.

Following the court's order, Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, met him with their two children at Adiala jail. Khan's other sister, Noreen Niazi, also briefly met him for the first time in nine months.

The government's review petition came after a video statement on Tuesday night by Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, who said the government wanted Khan examined at a public hospital. "This order does not fall within the legal parameters governing the facilities that can be provided to a convicted person in jail," he said in a post on X, arguing that prison rules require a medical board, not a court, to decide between jail and hospital treatment.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday accused Khan's PTI of having politicized the health of its rivals in the past. "History is witness that PTI people politicised the health of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's leadership," he said during a televised news conference. "Our leadership never said a word about the [PTI] founder's health," he said. "This is a legal matter. There should be no politics over it."

But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhary told the Senate the government would implement the court order, saying Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had "no authority to go against judicial decisions" – a position at odds with the government's review petition announced only hours later.

Senior PTI leader Sheikh Waqas Akram said the contradiction in the government's stand revealed its "hypocrisy". "On one hand, they say they will respect the court's verdict, so why are they now objecting to it?" he told Al Jazeera. "Days before the verdict, government officials were messaging our leaders that [PM] Shehbaz Sharif wants to talk," Akram added. "And now, after the court decision, they want to file a review petition? Why are they doing this?"

Zulfi Bukhari, another senior PTI leader, said the government's own ranks appeared divided over the Supreme Court order. "There is certainly confusion among their camp," he told Al Jazeera. "Some are trying to take it with grace and enforce the Supreme Court decision in letter and spirit, while others see it as a huge threat."

Bukhari said if the government's review petition was rejected, Khan would have to be shifted to a private hospital immediately. In case it was accepted, he added, the PTI would "take up the matter legally".

But Akram said a review petition does not suspend Tuesday's court order. "Until the court explicitly stays its own decision, Imran Khan must be moved to the hospital as directed," he said, warning that failing to implement it "only deepens hatred and makes reconciliation harder".

Source: www.aljazeera.com