ISLAMABAD: Jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has lost most of the vision in his right eye, his lawyer and family have said, raising fresh concerns about his health.
Khan, who is also a former star international cricketer, has been in jail since 2023 and was sentenced late last year along with his wife to 17 years on corruption charges they both deny.
His lawyer, Salman Safdar, visited Khan in jail this week and later submitted a report to Pakistan’s chief justice and the Supreme Court detailing his concerns and requesting treatment for his client.
“One of his eyes has only 15 percent vision,” Safdar told a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday.
The meeting with Safdar was Khan’s first contact with an outside visitor for several weeks, underscoring concerns raised by his legal team about limited access to Khan.
Safdar said Khan’s eyes were watery and he wiped them repeatedly during their meeting. Khan also complained of persistent irritation and vision problems, he said.
Khan’s son, Kasim Khan, said his father’s condition was the result of “medical neglect” during his confinement .”.. and the deliberate denial of proper treatment in jail.”
“The responsibility lies squarely with the regime in power, the Army Chief and the puppets enabling this cruelty,” Kasim Khan said on social media platform X late on Thursday.
The Supreme Court has already requested a report on Khan’s living conditions in connection with a case that has been pending since 2023.
Authorities had previously confirmed that Khan underwent a 20-minute medical procedure in January at Islamabad’s government hospital but gave no other details.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said at the time that Khan was “fine and healthy,” while government officials have repeatedly rejected claims that Khan was being mistreated in prison.
However, Safdar said that no meaningful action had been taken despite repeated complaints.
He has not expressed concerns about security but Safdar said in his report to the court that Khan believed his living conditions could be improved.
Khan was prime minister from 2018-22 before being removed in a no-confidence vote during a political crisis over tensions between his government and Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.
He has since faced multiple legal cases on corruption and other charges.
Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, maintain that the cases against him are politically motivated.
His arrest triggered nationwide protests in May 2023, some of which turned violent and led to hundreds of arrests.
Jailed Pakistan former PM loses most vision in one eye: lawyer
https://arab.news/9zgza
Jailed Pakistan former PM loses most vision in one eye: lawyer
- Khan’s son, Kasim Khan, said his father’s condition was the result of “medical neglect” during his confinement .”.. and the deliberate denial of proper treatment in jail”
US immigration agents’ training ‘broken’: whistleblower
- The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced
WASHINGTON: A former US immigration official said Monday that training for federal agents was “deficient, defective and broken,” adding to pressure on President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown.
Ryan Schwank resigned this month from his job teaching law at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training academy in Glynco, Georgia, after he said he was instructed to teach new recruits to violate the US Constitution.
The fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January reignited accusations that agents enforcing Trump’s militarized immigration operation are inexperienced, undertrained and operating outside law enforcement norms.
The administration scaled back the deployment after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in broad daylight by officers sparked mass protests and widespread outrage.
Schwank told a forum hosted by congressional Democrats on Monday that he “received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant.”
“Never in my career had I received such a blatantly unlawful order,” he said.
He said that ICE cut 240 hours from its 584-hour training program, curtailing subjects such as the US Constitution, lawful arrest, fire arms, the use of force and the limits of officers’ authority.
“The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” he said.
As a consequence, poorly trained, inexperienced armed officers were being sent to places like Minneapolis “with minimal supervision,” he said.
The lawyer’s comments coincide with the release of dozens of pages of internal ICE documents by Senate Democrats that suggest the Trump administration cut corners on training, the New York Times reported.
Schwank said he resigned on February 13 after more than four years working for ICE, and that he felt duty-bound to report inadequacies with the new training program.
