Ill health: Top court allows Dr Asim treatment of his choice

The bench, while issuing notices to respondents, adjourned the hearing till October 7


Our Correspondent October 03, 2015
Dr Asim Hussain. PHOTO: EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD:


The Supreme Court has directed the paramilitary Rangers to allow former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain, currently detained on charges of terror financing, access to medical treatment by the doctors of his choice.


The apex court’s two-judge bench, headed by Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, on Friday took up Dr Asim’s wife Zareen Hussain’s appeal against the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) September 23, 2015 order.

The petitioner on August 27 had filed an application in the SHC regarding illness of her husband and requested that he should be shifted to a hospital for medical supervision.

On August 28, Pakistan Rangers informed Zareen that her husband was unwell and asked her to bring doctors from Ziauddin Hospital, a medical facility owned by Dr Asim Hussain. The doctors who examined Dr Asim, declared his health condition as deteriorating and recommended his constant monitoring in a hospital. Pakistan Rangers, therefore, shifted him to the National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases (NICVD).

However, the SHC on September 23 declared that Dr Asim might be discharged from the NICVD, if the doctors of Pakistan Rangers were satisfied.

Counsel for the applicant, Abid Zuberi, told the bench that his client was discharged by Rangers doctors, although he had not fully recovered. The Rangers’ doctor claimed that Dr Asim was in good health but they submitted no written medical report to the effect.

The petition contended that Dr Asim was discharged without the consent of the hospital’s doctors as Rangers arbitrarily removed him on the basis of the SHC order. It also expressed dissatisfaction over the medical examination of Pakistan Rangers’ doctors.

The applicant requested the SC to direct Rangers to shift Dr Asim Hussain under the care and supervision of the NICVD until the medical review board convened by the hospital was satisfied that he could be safely discharged from hospital.

The bench inquired counsel for the applicant, if he thought his client would be secure in a hospital, adding that he should keep in mind the law and order situation in the port city of Karachi, where key witnesses in a number cases were killed.

The bench, while issuing notices to respondents, adjourned the hearing till October 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2015.

 

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