Pakistan’s government challenges court order on Imran Khan hospital move

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.

The move could dash the hopes ‌of Khan’s party and family, who have been calling for him to be given access to healthcare and visitation rights, and also spark public discontent over the treatment of the hugely popular cricketer-turned-politician.

Khan, 73, has been in jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven after he fell out with the country’s powerful military and was removed from office the previous year.

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. It also specified that he be given access to his personal doctor.

“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.