PTI requests immediate transfer of former PM to Shifa Hospital for specialized eye treatment
ISLAMABAD:
The PTI has approached the capital’s high court asking for the immediate transfer of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital for specialized eye treatment under the supervision of his personal doctors.
A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro will take up the application today (Tuesday) along with the objections raised against it by the court’s registrar.
The criminal miscellaneous application, filed on Monday under Section 561-A CrPC by senior counsel Latif Khosa, states that Imran Khan has only approximately 15% vision left in his right eye.
The petition cites a report submitted to the Supreme Court by amicus curiae Barrister Salman Safdar, which confirmed that prison authorities failed to provide timely or appropriate medical intervention despite the petitioner’s repeated complaints of “blurred and dangerous vision”.
This delay, it claims, ultimately resulted in the loss of vision in one eye. It also expresses alarm over a medical check-up carried out at Adiala prison on February 15, which was carried out in the “complete absence” of Imran’s family members, personal doctors or legal representatives.
No prior notice of the investigation was given, it maintains.
Imran was subsequently taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on 23 February for further procedures, again with the exception of his personal physicians, Drs. Faisal Sultan and Dr. Asim Yousaf, as well as his family members and lawyers.
“Nothing is known about the outcome of the petitioner’s medical examination and/or procedures performed at the PIMS hospital. Such secrecy is overwhelming and not acceptable on any hypothesis,” the application said.
The petition notes that the authorities’ continued insistence on treating Imran at PIMS, where no retina specialist is available, combined with the continued exclusion of his family and personal doctors from information about his health, “has created inevitable doubt”.
It further reveals that Imran’s family has been denied access for the past four to five months, despite prison rules allowing such meetings. When his sisters approached the authorities, they were turned away, the application claims.
The matter initially came before the SC, which through an order dated February 12, 2026 stayed the petitions without injunction and directed that if the petitioner had any grievance, “the appropriate course will be first to approach the High Court where his appeal is pending.”
Pursuant to these directions, the present application has been filed with the IHC where Imran’s appeal against his conviction in a court is still pending.
