Dr. Uzma Khan, sister of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, filed an application in the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday seeking an urgent hearing of a contempt plea against the federal government. The plea alleges the government has flouted an August 18 court order to shift Imran Khan from Adiala jail to Shifa International Hospital (SIH) for medical treatment.
The application, filed through Advocate Uzair Karamat Bhandari, was submitted following reports that Imran Khan’s blood pressure recently rose to 192. Uzma Khan argued that failing to grant an early hearing would prejudice the "guaranteed rights" of both herself and Imran Khan, specifically his "fundamental right to health and well-being, access to medical advice and facilities as well as to members of his family."
The contempt plea, originally filed on August 22, names Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Islamabad Chief Commissioner Sohail Ashraf, Interior Secretary Ahmed Raza Sarwar, Punjab Inspector General Prisons Mian Salik Jalal, and Adiala jail’s Superintendent Sajid Baig as respondents. In addition to the hospital transfer, the plea sought court directives to facilitate weekly meetings between Imran Khan and his family members—including his sisters Noreen Niazi and Aleema Khan, and cousin Qasim Zaman—as well as twice-weekly phone calls with his sons, Kasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan.
The SC has previously turned down two of Dr. Uzma Khan's requests for an early hearing. The registrar's office stated that the fixation policy requires proceedings to be conducted turn-wise, noting that 94 different criminal original petitions in the same category are pending.
The timeline of the legal dispute includes the following events:
On August 18, a three-member SC bench directed the government to shift Imran Khan to SIH within two days. The government instead took him to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for a check-up before returning him to prison.
On September 14, the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) summoned the records of Imran Khan's health case from the SC.
On September 16, a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed raised questions regarding the FCC's order. The court expressed reservations over the FCC's directive that cases pertaining to the hospital transfer be fixed before it. The SC deferred its own proceedings, stating that propriety demanded deferment, and adjourned the matter for a date after three weeks which has not yet been fixed.
During the September 16 hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Awan sought three weeks to assist the SC.
The FCC issued its orders following a plea by three Adiala jail inmates seeking similar relief to the August 18 interim order. The FCC's directive was issued under Article 175-E of the Constitution, which was inserted via the 27th Constitutional Amendment. This article empowers the FCC to call for records and decide matters involving major questions of constitutional law. However, the SC bench observed that fixing cases requisitioned from the SC did not fall under clause 5 of Article 175-E.
A lawyer suggested that the continued absence of the matter from the cause lists of both courts might indicate an informal understanding between the SC and the FCC, noting that the jurisdictional question between the two apex courts needs to be resolved.
