Islamabad:
A Pakistani court has accepted requests for a medical examination of detained former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi and also ordered an endoscopy for the former first lady at a private hospital within two days.
Mr Khan, 71, is lodged in Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi following conviction in multiple cases, while Bushra Bibi is currently imprisoned in Bani Gala – Khan's home in Islamabad – which has been turned into a sub-jail since the couple was convicted in the ' un-Islamic Nikah case in February.
During the hearing of the P190 million NCA case at the Adiala jail at the accountability court on Friday, Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, alleged that Bushra Bibi, 49, was given food mixed with toilet cleaner. News International reported this on Saturday.
Mr Khan said that Dr. Asim Yousaf, the chief medical officer of Shaukat Khanum Hospital, had recommended Bushra Bibi's tests at Shifa International Hospital, but that the prison administration was adamant about conducting the test here at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
The court postponed the hearing until April 23.
Earlier, Mr Khan told Judge Nasir Javed Rana that additional walls had been erected in the courtroom, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a closed courtroom.
The judge ordered the prison administration to immediately remove the additional barriers and adjourned the hearing for an hour. The prison administration obeyed the order and removed the additional barriers in no time.
On April 16, the Islamabad High Court disposed of a petition filed by Bushra Bibi seeking her transfer to Adiala Prison after her lawyers failed to appear in court.
A day later, Mr Khan claimed that army chief general Asim Munir was directly responsible for the capture of his wife Bushra Bibi. “If anything happens to my wife, I will not leave Asim Munir, I will not leave Asim Munir as long as I live. I will expose his unconstitutional and illegal steps,” the PTI leader had threatened while talking to journalists at the Congress. Adiala Prison on April 18.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)