Three Adiala inmates move FCC over medical facilities

Three inmates of Adiala Jail have approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), challenging the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to reject their pleas seeking treatment at private hospitals on terms similar to those granted to incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan.

The petitions were filed on Tuesday, with the prisoners seeking a fresh interpretation of Rule 197 of the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978, which deals with the transfer of prisoners to hospitals for medical treatment.

Advocate Akhtar Cheema, representing prisoner Muhammad Ilyas Khan, said the other two petitioners, Mohammad Ismail Hussain and Owais Altaf, were represented by Advocates Irfan Nasir Cheema and Syed Jaffer Baqir, respectively.

According to Cheema, separate petitions were filed before the FCC on behalf of all three prisoners.

The lawyer argued that Rule 197 allows a prisoner to be shifted to a civil hospital when necessary. He maintained that the government’s interpretation of the term “civil hospital” as referring only to a public-sector hospital was incorrect.

The petitions also referred to an August 18 Supreme Court order concerning Imran Khan. The order had directed the government to shift the former prime minister to Shifa International Hospital, a private medical facility. However, he was subsequently taken to the government-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for treatment.

Following that development, the three Adiala inmates approached the IHC, seeking similar medical facilities. The high court dismissed their petitions on August 31, prompting them to move the FCC.

Cheema said his client, Muhammad Ilyas Khan, was suffering from severe internal bleeding and had been taken to a public hospital eight times over the past two months.

He argued that the prisoner’s medical condition required appropriate and consistent treatment and claimed that the petitioners had serious concerns about the quality of care available in the public hospital system.

The petitioners have asked the FCC to set aside the IHC decision and direct the authorities to provide them with medical facilities comparable to those ordered for Imran Khan.

They have also invoked Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law. The petitioners argue that prisoners should not be subjected to discriminatory treatment and that similar circumstances should warrant similar medical facilities.

In addition to medical treatment, the petitions seek permission for the inmates to communicate with family members residing abroad through WhatsApp.

The IHC, while rejecting the earlier petitions, had observed that imprisonment necessarily involves restrictions on a prisoner’s freedom in accordance with the law. The court had also held that every available technical facility could not automatically be treated as a fundamental right.

The high court further maintained that a prisoner did not have a legal right to demand transfer to a private hospital of his or her choice.