SC objects to PTI’s plea seeking Imran’s transfer to hospital of his choice

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday raised objections to a plea seeking the transfer of PTI founder Imran Khan to a hospital.

The application was filed by PTI lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa on February 25, pursuant to Order XXXV Rule 6 of the Supreme Court Rules 2025, after Imran underwent government-facilitated follow-up treatment for his eye ailment.

PTI lawyers Khosa, along with Naeem Panjotha, appeared before SC Chief Justice Yahya Afridi on Friday, seeking the scheduling of PTI’s application.

However, CJP Afridi told the lawyers that the “application was returned with objections a day earlier”.

“Your petitions will remain pending until further orders,” he said to the lawyers.

“There is no such application at the moment, on which proceedings can be held,” he added.

Khosa informed CJP Afridi that the PTI counsels had requested an early hearing, adding that the court had ordered the former premier’s treatment.

At this, CJP Afridi said that the court had not issued an order; rather, it was the government that had given assurances for the treatment.

“You should read the court’s decision again as the health issue is not pending,” CJP Afridi remarked.

Khosa informed the court that the transfer application was made “not on legal or political but humanitarian grounds”. In response to this, CJP Afridi held that the former premier’s recent medical check-up was carried out on “humanitarian grounds”.

“Please try to understand what I am saying,” Khosa insisted, at which Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan remarked, “I have known you since 1992, I understand everything you are saying”.

“Khosa sahib, you are a senior lawyer, you understand the procedure,” the CJP said, directing Khosa to meet the SC registrar.

“If the SC registrar does not give a copy of the objections, then you may come to court,” CJP Afridi said.

“If the order was issued yesterday, then how did no one inform us?” Khosa said.

As per a source, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan also met CJP Afridi and sought the transfer of the incarcerated former premier to a hospital, citing family and party concerns about his health.

However, he was told that SC would not interfere while his cases remained pending before the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Imran’s health, who is imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, has been garnering attention in recent days, with his family and party raising concerns since his eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — came to light in late January.

According to a doctor at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Imran was brought to the hospital for follow-up treatment on February 24.

However, his party took exception to the government’s “secrecy” regarding the treatment.

Meanwhile, the application, available with media, was filed on behalf of Imran and named the Islamabad district election commissioner as the respondent, as it invoked the Toshakhana case in which the PTI founder was first arrested on Aug 5, 2023.

The plea had requested the SC that Imran be “immediately shifted to Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, for proper treatment of his eyes from [a] retina specialist”.

The plea also sought Imran’s access to his personal physicians Dr Faisal Sultan and Dr Aasim Yusuf, “who may be associated with all the procedures of examination and treatment”.

In his application, Khosa highlighted that Imran 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”.

“The conduct of a medical examination in secrecy, without notice to the family or independent doctors, has given rise to serious apprehensions,” he contended.