Bushra requests that the SC note the ‘decline’ in Imran’s health while he is imprisoned.
Bushra Bibi, the wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, urged the Supreme Court on Friday to take “serious notice” of the alleged threat to her husband’s life while he was detained. She cited a significant deterioration in her husband’s health during a meeting with him in Attock jail.
Her attorney, Syed Rifaqat Hussain Shah, handed her affidavit—which described her meeting with her husband on August 22—into the Supreme Court today.
Her letter to the Punjab government last week, in which she expressed worries that her husband might be “poisoned” in Attock jail, contained similar worries.
Imran was given a three-year prison sentence after being found guilty on August 5 by a trial court in Islamabad of concealing information about state gifts. Shortly after the decision, the Punjab police detained him at the prison in Attock. He was residing in Lahore’s Zaman Park at the time.
It was noted in the submitted affidavit, a copy of which is available at Dawn.com, that Bushra was permitted to meet Imran on August 22, 2023, at the Attock jail, “after unjustified delays and difficulties.”
The petitioner “expressed his determination to stand for the Constitution and Rule of Law in Pakistan and to offer any sacrifice and suffer any privation or hardship for his beloved country,” it continued, during the meeting.
According to the affidavit, Bushra “found a significant decline in the petitioner’s health” and “appears to have lost weight substantially during the course of his confinement, particularly loss of muscles around his arms” during their meeting.
A person in his 70s who experiences such a decline in health could put his life in grave danger, it continued.
Without going into further detail, the affidavit stated, “That without going into details and keeping in mind the totality of circumstances observed by the deponent, it is feared that the petitioner’s life is seriously threatened, for which it is humbly prayed that this honourable court may kindly take serious notice of the same.”
Bushra has previously expressed concern over the safety of her husband.
Imran’s wife requested the transfer of the former prime minister from District Jail Attock to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail in a letter dated August 17 and addressed to the Punjab home secretary. She also expressed concern that he might be poisoned while imprisoned.
The letter claimed that the ex-prime minister had previously been attacked twice and that one of those attacks resulted in a gunshot wound to his body.
Additionally, Bushra had worried that he might be poisoned in jail through food because those responsible for and perpetrators of earlier attacks were still at large and had not yet been apprehended by law enforcement.
The PTI leader is currently appealing his prison sentence before the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court. On August 23, the Supreme Court acknowledged “procedural defects” in the August 5 conviction of Imran in the Toshakhana reference but chose to wait for the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) ruling on a motion seeking to suspend the former prime minister’s three-year sentence.
After the attorney for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) missed the hearing due to illness, the IHC postponed its proceedings until Monday.
