ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government said on Saturday it has decided to transfer jailed former prime minister Imran Khan to a hospital and form a medical board for his eye treatment, as opposition protests over the issue entered a second day and his lawyers moved a high court to seek his release on health grounds.
The developments follow a report submitted to the Supreme Court by a lawyer appointed as amicus curiae who was asked to visit Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail earlier this month. The report said the 73-year-old had suffered severe vision loss in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion, leaving him with only 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
The findings triggered a sit-in by an opposition alliance, including members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, demanding his immediate transfer to Islamabad’s Al-Shifa Hospital. Khan was also allowed to speak to his sons for about 20 minutes, according to his family, despite the former premier’s limited interactions with his family and legal team in recent months due to restrictions that the PTI has challenged in court.
In a social media post, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry announced the government’s decision.
“Imran Khan has been provided the facility to speak with his sons on the phone and, in view of his health, it has also been decided to transfer him to hospital and constitute a medical board,” he said.
“The government gives priority to humanitarian considerations and legal requirements,” he continued. “Providing facilities to every prisoner in accordance with the law is the government’s responsibility.”
Chaudhry urged that sensitive health matters should not be politicized and said the government was fulfilling its responsibilities, calling for restraint and seriousness instead of what he described as baseless propaganda.
Earlier in the day, Khan’s lawyers filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking suspension of a Dec. 20, 2025 conviction in a graft case involving state gifts, arguing that continued incarceration during the pendency of the appeal would result in a grave miscarriage of justice.
The petition says the judgment is under substantive legal challenge and requests suspension of the sentence until the appeal is decided, a remedy available under Pakistani law when serious questions are raised about a conviction.
According to medical documents cited in the filing, a specialist at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences diagnosed severe damage to Khan’s right eye caused by a blood clot, stating the condition could not be adequately treated inside prison.
Meanwhile, the opposition alliance vowed to continue its sit-in outside Parliament House until Khan was shifted to hospital.
Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, an opposition politician, told a news conference at the National Press Club that the opposition’s only demand was that Khan be granted full access to the required medical facilities.
“He has already lost vision in one eye,” he told the media.
“His treatment should take place in the presence of his family,” he continued. “Until this demand is met, we will not step back.”
Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, also confirmed in a post on X that the former premier had spoken to his sons for about 20 minutes following a direction from the chief justice of Pakistan and that the family was now awaiting urgent treatment at Shifa International Hospital under the supervision of his personal doctors.
“We cannot and will not tolerate any further delay,” she said.
