Pak court petitioned to allow Imran Khan's medical examination by specialist from hospital he set up

Islamabad, Dec 4 (PTI) A petition filed in the Islamabad High Court has sought medical examination of incarcerated former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan by doctors from a specialised cancer hospital in Lahore.

The hospital named in the petition is The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) in Lahore that Khan had set up more than three decades ago.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and a leader of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Sohail Afridi, while petitioning the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday, also named as respondent the government of Punjab province through its prison department.

Khan, the 73-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician, has been lodged at the Adiala Jail in Punjab province in connection with multiple cases since 2023 after he was first arrested in August that year.

Dawn reported that Afridi argued in his plea that Khan was facing “multiple health complications” and “required assessment from specialist doctors.” He also claimed that the PTI founder had been jailed as a political victim under alleged pressure from the government and, therefore, was entitled to quality medical facilities in the interest of justice.

The IHC has fixed the petition for hearing and sought records from relevant authorities.

The plea comes a day after Khan’s sister, Uzma Khan, told media after meeting with Khan in the Adiala Jail at Rawalpindi that her brother was in good health.

Khan has been incarcerated since August 2023, facing scores of cases and convicted in some of them.

His latest conviction was on January 17 in the Al-Qadir Trust case when a court found him and his wife Bushra Bibi guilty of corruption, sentencing Khan for 14 years and Bibi for seven years in prison. PTI SH NPK NPK