ISLAMABAD: Lawyers of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan have moved a Pakistani high court to suspend his 17-year prison term in a graft case and release the ex-premier on grounds of his deteriorating health, Khan’s party said on Saturday.
The development follows a rare prison visit earlier this week by Barrister Salman Safdar, appointed as amicus curiae by the Supreme Court, to assess Khan’s health and living conditions at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. In his report, Safdar stated the ex-premier had suffered a significant loss of sight in his right eye.
The report sparked a protest by an alliance of opposition parties, the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), which also includes members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, at Parliament House in Islamabad, with the protesters demanding Khan’s transfer from Adiala Jail to Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment.
The petition filed by Khan’s lawyers in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeks suspension of a Dec. 20, 2025 judgment by a special court involving illegal retention of state gifts, arguing that “continued incarceration of the Petitioner during pendency of the Appeal would result in grave miscarriage of justice.”
“The filing argues that the judgment is under substantive legal challenge and requests that the appellate court suspend the sentence until the appeal is decided, a remedy available under Pakistani law when serious questions are raised about the conviction,” Khan’s PTI party said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the petition filed by Barrister Safdar, a specialist at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) diagnosed “severe damage to the Petitioner’s right eye caused by a blood clot, leaving him with only fifteen percent (15 percent) vision in the affected eye.”
“[This] medical complication is of such gravity and seriousness that the same cannot be treated inside the jail premises,” the petition read.
The development came as the opposition sit-in at parliament entered its second day on Saturday. Local media reported that Khan supporters had also blocked the Hazara motorway in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, ruled by his PTI party.
“This sit-in will continue until Imran Khan is transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital,” the opposition alliance said on X.
Khan, 73, has been in custody since August 2023. The petition seeks to suspend his December conviction on charges of “criminal breach of trust” and corruption related to a jewelry set. He was sentenced to 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The petition represents the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle for the former cricket star-turned-politician. Since his removal from office in 2022, Khan has faced a barrage of cases.
His legal team argues the “present prosecution constitutes yet another continuation of this pattern” of “unprecedented political victimization.” The government says the courts are free to decide on legal matters.
On Friday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said there would be no negligence with regard to Khan’s treatment.
“Medical report will be compiled again, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is himself monitoring this case,” he said.
“Wherever it will be requested, Imran Khan’s eye will be examined at.”
