CJP assures PTI petitions on Imran Khan access will be fixed after Eid

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi on Wednesday assured the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership that petitions related to access to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan by his personal physician, family members and legal counsel would be fixed for hearing soon after Eidul Azha.

The assurance came during a meeting between the chief justice and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who had been leading a brief sit-in outside the Supreme Court building after attending proceedings at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the £190 million corruption case involving Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

Speaking to the media afterwards, Raja said the chief justice had told him that all petitions and applications concerning Imran Khan would be scheduled after Eid, which he said was falling on May 27. According to Raja, he informed the chief justice that an appeal had been pending before the Supreme Court since October 2025 against an IHC order concerning permission to meet Imran Khan, who is being held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

He also said another application filed on behalf of Imran Khan’s sisters had remained pending before the apex court without being heard. Raja added that the chief justice had issued directions to senior Supreme Court officials for the cases to be fixed. He further said he was hopeful the PTI would soon get a favourable ruling on permission to meet the party founder after Eid.

Petitions related to medical access and meetings

Earlier, Dr Uzma Khan, one of Imran Khan’s sisters, had also challenged an IHC ruling that denied facilities including his transfer to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, as well as access to personal physicians, family members and lawyers.

That petition also requested that the matter be treated as an appeal and sought directions for Imran Khan to undergo a medical examination by doctors of his own choice on an immediate basis. The physicians named in the plea were Dr Khurram Mirza, Dr Asim Yusuf, Dr Faisal Sultan and Dr Samina Niazi.

Later, PTI legal team member Intezar Panjutha told Dawn that lawyers who had staged the sit-in outside the Supreme Court premises ended their protest and dispersed while raising slogans in support of Imran Khan.

Related hearing on May 9 cases

Separately, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Afridi disposed of appeals filed by the Punjab prosecution seeking cancellation of bail granted to PTI leader Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry in cases linked to the May 9 incidents.

During the hearing, Punjab Additional Prosecutor General Ahmed Raza Gilani told the court that the Supreme Court had earlier ordered completion of trials in the May 9 cases within four months, and that verdicts had already been announced in eight of the 10 cases against Chaudhry.

The court was told that the accused remained in jail, had not misused the concession of bail, and that proceedings in the cases were continuing. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the high court’s decision granting bail to Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry in two cases.

The developments came on the same day that the IHC, in the £190 million case, directed counsel for Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi to begin arguments at the next hearing of their appeals against conviction, while also ordering that powers of attorney be signed and adjourning the matter indefinitely.