ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party this week warned the government against shifting him to a hospital for treatment without informing his family and physicians, saying such a move would be in violation of the constitution and jail rules.
The PTI’s response came after the government announced on Saturday that it has decided to transfer the jailed former prime minister from the Central Prison in Rawalpindi to a hospital and form a medical board for his eye treatment.
The developments follow a report submitted to the Supreme Court by a lawyer appointed as a “friend of the court” who was asked to visit Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail earlier this month. The report said the 73-year-old had suffered severe vision loss in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion, leaving him with only 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
The report’s findings triggered a sit-in by an opposition alliance, including members of Khan’s PTI, outside Parliament House in Islamabad, who demanded his immediate transfer to Islamabad’s Al-Shifa Hospital. Khan was also allowed to speak to his sons for about 20 minutes, according to his family, despite the former premier’s limited interactions with his family and legal team in recent months due to restrictions that the PTI has challenged in court.
