Did Pakistan comply with the court order when it moved Imran Khan to hospital?

Pakistani authorities took former prime minister Imran Khan from Adiala prison to an Islamabad hospital early on 21 August and returned him to jail after an examination, but his family and party dispute whether officials followed the Supreme Court’s order. For Belgium and the European Union, the immediate issue is not Khan’s political programme but whether Pakistan is respecting judicial authority and the rights of a high-profile prisoner—standards Brussels formally places at the centre of its relationship with Islamabad.

The transfer followed a 18 August ruling by a three-judge Supreme Court panel. Dawn reported that the court directed the government to move Khan to Shifa International Hospital within two days, establish a multidisciplinary medical board and allow his personal physician, Faisal Sultan, and his sister Dr Uzma Khan to participate. The order said imprisonment did not remove a person’s entitlement to humane treatment and necessary medical care.

What happened overnight remains contested. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar initially said Khan had been examined at Shifa by an ophthalmologist, cardiologist and physician, declared medically fit and returned to Adiala prison, according to the Associated Press. Khan’s sister Uzma and PTI officials subsequently said he had instead been taken to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, or PIMS, while Sultan waited at Shifa and was denied access. Reuters reported that PTI filed a contempt petition on 22 August alleging a clear breach of the order. No court finding cited in the available reporting has yet resolved that allegation.

The government rejects the broader accusation of mistreatment. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information told AP that Khan is a convicted prisoner held under judicial sentences, not an executive detention order, and said prison and medical records did not support claims of neglect or punitive isolation. It said he had received repeated specialist examinations and extensive access to approved visitors. PTI and Khan’s family, by contrast, argue that access has been restricted, that independent medical oversight is essential and that the brief examination did not satisfy the court’s safeguards.

Khan, 73, led Pakistan from 2018 until a parliamentary no-confidence vote removed him in April 2022. He has been imprisoned since August 2023 following convictions in several cases. He says the prosecutions are politically motivated; the authorities describe them as lawful judicial proceedings. His removal, arrest and continued detention have deepened a confrontation involving PTI, the civilian government, the courts and Pakistan’s powerful security establishment.

That institutional struggle is the larger story. The hospital dispute is narrow, but it tests whether an explicit order from Pakistan’s highest court can be implemented transparently when the prisoner is the country’s most consequential opposition figure. The Supreme Court required medical records and information about family and legal visits to be submitted before a follow-up hearing scheduled for 16 September. It also restricted public disclosure of Khan’s medical information and told PTI supporters not to gather at the hospital.

The EU’s framing is broader than the overnight transfer. At the EU-Pakistan Joint Commission in Brussels in December 2025, officials discussed democracy, governance, human rights and the rule of law alongside trade, migration and security. EU Special Representative for Human Rights Olof Skoog had earlier said the relationship was built on shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Those principles have economic weight: European Commission figures identify Pakistan as the largest beneficiary of the EU’s GSP+ tariff scheme, under which continued preferences depend on implementing 27 international conventions.

Belgium participates in that policy through the Council of the EU and maintains an embassy in Islamabad headed by Ambassador Charles-Idesbald van der Gracht de Rommerswael. The embassy is also the first point of contact for registered Belgians in Pakistan, while regional trade interests are represented there by economic and commercial attaché Shaukat Niazi. Neither Belgium’s Foreign Affairs service nor the EU institutions appear to have issued a public statement specifically about Khan’s August hospital visit as of 4 September.

The next decisive step is therefore judicial, not diplomatic. The Supreme Court can examine the medical record, determine where and how Khan was assessed, and consider PTI’s allegation of non-compliance. Until that happens, the confirmed facts are limited: Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan was moved from jail for a short hospital examination and returned to custody; the government says he received proper care, while his family and party say the court’s prescribed process was not followed.