Islamabad, Aug 18 (IANS) Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered authorities to transfer jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital for a comprehensive medical examination within the next few days, local media reported. A three-member Supreme Court bench led by Justice Shahid Waheed passed the order while hearing several petitions seeking Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan's hospitalisation and meeting with his family.

"Mindful of the fundamental right, we are issuing this order to ensure the health and safety of the prisoner," leading Pakistani daily Dawn quoted Waheed as saying. The court said the order was being issued in view of Imran Khan's health and the constitutional guarantee of the right to life and access to medical facilities. It also directed authorities to ensure weekly meetings between Imran Khan and his family members and ordered the establishment of a medical board, with his personal physician and his sister Uzma Khan, to be associated with it. The ruling came a day after the Superintendent of Adiala jail, where Imran Khan has been incarcerated since August 2023, submitted a report to the Supreme Court on the former PM's health.

Citing an annexure to the findings, Dawn reported that Akhtar Ali Bandeshah, a doctor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), examined Imran Khan on August 1 and recorded complaints of uncontrolled and fluctuating blood pressure, palpitations, headache, and restlessness.  Imran Khan reportedly linked his symptoms and stress partly to limited meetings with his wife, family, and social contacts, as well as the lack of access to newspapers and television, Dawn reported.

The doctor advised steps to ease Imran Khan's mental stress, including allowing him to meet his wife more frequently and providing access to reading material. He also recommended a CT coronary angiography and an increase in his blood pressure medication, warning that the 74-year-old PTI leader was at risk of developing complications. Imran Khan had approached the Supreme Court in May, seeking his transfer to Shifa International Hospital and access to his personal physicians, family members, and legal counsel, as well as the sharing of his medical records with his family.

Last month, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, expressed concerns over reports of Imran Khan's detention conditions and his not getting access to proper medical care. She also urged Pakistan to restore humane conditions and allow the former PM to access medical examination and treatment of his own choice.

"Fmr PM Imran Khan has now been held in near-total solitary for 33 months in a small, windowless cell under 24/7 CCTV. Often more than 2 weeks continuously, without exercise or meaningful human contact. This far exceeds the MANDELA rules," Edwards wrote in a post on LinkedIn. "I am also concerned about reports that he is being denied proper medical care and is suffering from serious medical issues that have not been treated appropriately, compounding a spinal injury from a 2013 accident and bullet wounds sustained in a November 2022 assassination attempt. I call on Pakistan to restore humane conditions and allow him his choice of medical examination and appropriate treatment," she added.

--IANS