ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Monday brushed aside speculation regarding a deal with the government, saying party founder Imran Khan would not have spent three years in jail if he wanted to make a deal.
He made the remarks while speaking outside the Supreme Court (SC) alongside PTI leader Sardar Latif Khosa after the two met with the court’s registrar.
“Khan sahib does not make deals. He will not stay in the hospital a minute more than is necessary for his tests and treatment. If he had to make a deal, he would not have spent three years in jail,” Gohar said.
“All we have to say is that there should be no politics on his health,” he said.
During the press talk, Gohar said that he and Khosa had arrived at the SC to meet with Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi in connection with the party’s contempt petition against the government’s alleged violation of its Aug 18 order for shifting Imran to Shifa International Hospital.
“I asked to meet the chief justice. He was busy so it could not happen. Myself and Khosa sahib met the SC registrar and requested that a number be allotted to this case and it be fixed for hearing,” he said.
He said that the registrar had assured that a case number would be allotted to the contempt plea. Gohar said that they were also assured of the early fixation of the case before the SC.
“This [Aug 18 order] cannot be ignored. The whole world is looking at the SC and whether it is able to implement its order,” he said.
“We only wanted PTI founder’s medical tests to be conducted at a private hospital, with both his sister Uzma and his personal physician Dr Faisal Sultan included in the medical board examining him,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khosa said that a case number was being allotted to the was in Lahore.
Last week, Imran’s sister Uzma Khan had filed contempt petition before the SC against officials for flouting its Aug 18 order. The petition, filed by Advocate Uzair Karamat Bhandari on behalf of Dr Uzma, also requested the apex court to depute an officer or appoint a local commission to ensure that Imran was immediately shifted to the private hospital in accordance with its earlier directions.
Imran’s hospital transfer saga
Last week, the SC had ordered the government to shift Imran to Shifa International Hospital within two days for examination and treatment by a multidisciplinary medical board.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed and comprising Justices Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued the interim contempt petition, and quoted the registrar as saying that one of the judges directions on petitions seeking Imran’s hospitalisation, access to personal physicians and family members and provision of his medical record to his family.
The court had also ordered that Dr Uzma and Dr Sultan — Imran’s personal physician — be present during the medical check-up by a medical board.
At the same time, Imran’s family members, PTI members and lawyers associated with him were barred from disclosing his health condition or medical reports to the media or public until the next hearing.
The next day, the government had filed a review plea against the court’s order to shift Imran to the private hospital, arguing that the directive was discriminatory and issued in violation of prison rules and principles of natural justice.
However, the SC had returned the plea on Thursday with the objection that the contents of the affidavit and facts, along with the review petition filed under Article 188 of the Constitution, had not been properly drawn up and that one of the paper books was not in order.
The same night, elaborate arrangements were put in place in and around Shifa International Hospital, and all signs pointed to the PTI founder being brought there, in compliance with the SC order.
But, it became clear on Friday morning that Imran had been taken to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for a check-up and then subsequently transported back to prison. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar blamed “the security situation created by PTI workers on the way to and outside Al Shifa Hospital” for the diversion.
In a post on X, he said, “In the light of the SC’s order, the prisoner was taken to the hospital under appropriate security arrangements during the night between August 20 and 21.
“A team of qualified doctors, including an ophthalmologist, a cardiologist, and a physician, conducted a detailed examination of him and declared him medically fit,” he said.
Later, the Pims administration said that two specialists from Shifa International Hospital participated in Imran’s eye assessment, while other examinations were carried out by the concerned Pims specialists.
Imran has been taken to Pims multiple times after his eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — came to light in late January.
“The clinical input arising from the ophthalmological assessment was taken into account alongside findings of the investigations conducted at Pims,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the government on Thursday filed a fresh review petition against the SC’s Aug 18 order. The Islamabad chief commissioner again filed the plea, saying that his office had a direct, substantial and legally protected interest in the matter and that the Aug 18 order adversely affected its constitutional authority.
