Pakistan: PTI approaches SC for Imran Khan’s treatment at hospital of choice
Islamabad: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Wednesday filed a petition in the country’s Supreme Court requesting the medical treatment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan at a hospital of his choice and permission for consulting his personal physicians, local media reported.
PTI lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa filed the application in Supreme Court after PTI founder Imran Khan was taken to hospital for a follow-up treatment for his eye ailment on Tuesday, Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn reported. The application was filed on behalf of Imran Khan and Islamabad district election commissioner has been named as the respondent, as it invoked the Toshakhana case in which PTI founder was first arrested in 2022.
In the plea, Imran Khan has requested that he should be immediately taken to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for proper treatment of his eyes from a retina specialist. The plea has requested that Imran Khan be allowed to consult his personal physicians Faisal Sultan and Dr Aasim Yusuf and they “may be associated with all the procedures of examination and treatment.”
The plea further stated, “It is also prayed that the petitioner’s family members be duly informed and grant reasonable access to them during his medical check-up and treatment.” The petition requested that attested copies of medical reports and checkups carried out on Imran Khan be handed over to PTI founder’s lawyer, Dawn reported.
The plea requested that the lawyer be granted reasonable access to Imran Khan for updated instruction for his effective representation before the court and so as to enable complete justice to the petitioner. In the plea, Khosa stated that Imran Khan was 73 years old, adding that “his advancing age and declining health are matters of grave concern not only for his family but for the people of Pakistan at large”, Dawn reported.
He stated that the conducting medical examination in secrecy without sharing details with Imran Khan’s family or independent doctors has sparked serious apprehensions. He added, “Nothing is known regarding the outcome of the petitioner’s medical examination and or procedures conducted in PIMS hospital. Such secrecy is mindboggling and not acceptable on any hypothesis.”
Reports about Imran Khan’s eye ailment, right Central Retinal Vein Occlusion (CRVO), surfaced in January. His first medical procedure, which was conducted on January 24, was revealed by the government five days later.
Since then, the opposition has accused the government of a lack of transparency on the matter and not ensuring appropriate treatment for Imran Khan and not allowing him to consult his personal physicians. The government has rejected the allegations.
Imran Khan was taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a follow-up treatment in the early hours of Tuesday.