Supreme Court docket grants jailed ex-PM Imran Khan switch to hospital for almost a month after considerations have been raised over his blood strain.
Revealed On 18 Aug 2026
Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court docket on Tuesday ordered the switch of Imran Khan, former prime minister and founding father of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) get together, from Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to Islamabad’s Shifa Worldwide Hospital inside two days, accepting a requirement his get together had been making for months.
Uzair Bhandari, one among Khan’s legal professionals, advised Al Jazeera the three-member bench additionally ordered a medical board be fashioned to supervise Khan’s remedy, together with the ex-prime minister’s sister, Dr Uzma Khan, and his private doctor, Dr Faisal Sultan.
“The court docket additionally directed that Khan’s household be allowed to satisfy him on the hospital and that he be permitted to talk together with his sons, who dwell overseas,” Bhandari stated.
The subsequent listening to has been mounted for September 16, and Khan ought to stay hospitalised till at the very least then as per the order, based on the lawyer. This would be the longest interval that Khan shall be bodily outdoors jail premises since he was imprisoned in August 2023, convicted in a number of corruption-related circumstances that he and his get together insist are politically motivated.
The order adopted a report Adiala jail’s superintendent submitted to the court docket on Monday, detailing a cardiac board’s August 10 assessment of Khan, 73, which recorded fluctuating blood strain and anxiousness linked to restricted contact together with his household.
Throughout Tuesday’s listening to, the court docket pressed Pakistan’s advocate normal over gaps within the report, saying Khan’s “pulse and coronary heart situation weren’t regular” and that his important organs “had began being affected”.
Courts had twice declined related switch requests since February, together with an Islamabad Excessive Court docket ruling that ordered a medical board’s evaluation as an alternative.
Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI chief, advised Al Jazeera the ruling bolstered the get together’s longstanding place that Khan wanted unbiased, specialised remedy outdoors Adiala jail.
“Medical care offered throughout the jail system is not any substitute for a radical analysis by unbiased specialists of his selecting,” he stated, including that PTI had persistently known as for Khan’s switch to Shifa Worldwide and entry to his personal medical doctors.
Authorities officers have insisted any switch required judicial authorisation somewhat than government discretion.
Rana Sanaullah, adviser to the prime minister, advised the Senate on Monday that Khan was receiving “the very best out there medical remedy” and that his situation didn’t assist PTI’s considerations.
The order lands amid a wider standoff over entry to Khan, which PTI has more and more framed because the precondition for reviving talks with the federal government. The federal government, for its half, has renewed efforts to have interaction in dialogue however to no avail as but, whereas PTI management has introduced a national protest on September 27.
