ISLAMABAD: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was taken to a state-run Islamabad hospital overnight while his personal physician waited separately at the private facility specified by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Khan’s sister and doctor said on Friday.
Pakistan’s top court on Tuesday ordered authorities to transfer Khan to Shifa International Hospital within 48 hours for specialist examination and treatment by a medical board that included his personal physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan.
But Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed on Friday that Khan had instead been taken from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), citing security concerns around Shifa.
Khan’s sister, Uzma Khan, who accompanied him at PIMS, said she questioned officials when she realized where he had been taken.
“I said, ‘Who brought him here? The Supreme Court ordered that he be taken to Shifa International,’” Khan said at a news conference in Islamabad.
She said she warned a police official that authorities could face contempt proceedings if they did not take Khan to Shifa in accordance with the court order, but received no response.
Khan said doctors at PIMS examined Khan’s right eye, administered an injection and conducted another test that showed a small hemorrhage remained.
Khan has previously received treatment at PIMS for central retinal vein occlusion in his right eye, a condition that can impair vision.
Sultan, meanwhile, said police took him in a separate vehicle to Shifa International Hospital, where he waited for around two to three hours for Khan to arrive.
“When it was around 4:15 to 4:30 a.m., they told me, ‘Doctor, it seems they are not going to arrive, and perhaps they have already turned back. You should return as well,’” Sultan told reporters.
Tarar said Khan had been taken to PIMS instead of Shifa because of a “security situation” created by supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on the route to and outside the private hospital.
He said Khan underwent a detailed examination by a team that included an ophthalmologist, cardiologist and physician and was declared “medically fit.”
“After the completion of this entire process, he was transferred back to Adiala Jail at approximately 0500 hours on the morning of August 21, 2026,” Tarar said.
The decision to take Khan to PIMS rather than the hospital named by the Supreme Court is likely to raise questions over whether authorities fully complied with its directive, particularly since Sultan, whom the court had included on the medical board, was taken to a different hospital.
The government had already sought a review of the Supreme Court order, arguing that allowing a convicted prisoner treatment at a specified private hospital could encourage other inmates to seek similar relief. The court registrar’s office returned the petition on Thursday over filing deficiencies.
The government says Khan has consistently been provided appropriate medical care and rejects accusations by his family and party that his rights have been denied.
The overnight movement attracted intense public attention because Khan, 73, remains one of Pakistan’s most popular political figures despite being imprisoned since August 2023 and largely kept out of public view.
The former cricket star served as prime minister from 2018 until he was removed in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. His relationship with Pakistan’s powerful military deteriorated sharply around the end of his government, and he subsequently accused the military and his political opponents of engineering his removal and imprisonment. They deny the allegations, and the military says it does not interfere in politics.
Khan has faced more than 100 legal cases since leaving office, ranging from corruption allegations to charges related to violence by his supporters after his brief arrest in May 2023. He denies wrongdoing and says the cases are politically motivated, while the government denies persecuting him.
