A medical team from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences examined former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi at Adiala Jail on Sunday evening, spent about two hours inside, and left without disclosing a single finding. The team, led by Dr Arif, checked blood pressure, temperature and pulse, carried out an assessment, reviewed prescribed medication and gave health instructions, according to jail sources. What the visit did not settle is the question it was sent to answer: whether the 74-year-old PTI founder, in prison since August 2023, is receiving the care a Supreme Court order directed 83 days ago.
What the examination did, and did not, do
The team arrived in the evening, assisted by staff of the jail hospital. Both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were examined, and both were then taken back to their cells. The doctors asked about overall health, reviewed medication and gave instructions before leaving. That is the full public record. No findings, diagnoses or concerns were disclosed, and the jail administration has not commented on the examination, said whether the report has gone to the Supreme Court, or said whether further visits are scheduled.
The 83-day-old order
On 18 August, the Supreme Court directed that he be shifted to hospital and given treatment, with a medical board to oversee his care. The party’s petition asks for his move from Adiala Jail to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad. That order is now 83 days old, and it has not been carried out. The court last heard the matter on 16 September, when the Attorney General sought three weeks to examine its questions. The three weeks expired without the case being fixed for a further hearing, and the party says neither the Supreme Court nor the Federal Constitutional Court has listed it since.
PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan raised the alarm on Friday, saying recent updates on the founder’s physical condition were not encouraging. The party has asked the Supreme Court to fix an early hearing on implementing the 18 August order. Senator Mashal Yousafzai, one of the petitioners, said his health was deteriorating and the failure to provide the court-directed care had given rise to serious concerns. Her application warns that any further delay may have serious consequences for his health.
Two accounts, and no evidence
The public is now left with two accounts and no evidence. The party says the news from inside the jail is bad, and it has cited a blood pressure reading of 192 after a meeting on 2 November, a figure no outlet has independently verified. The state has said nothing about the examination, and its silence no more confirms he is well than the party’s alarm confirms he is not. Only a medical report published in full, or an independent assessment, would resolve the question. Neither has been produced.
Gohar also demanded the immediate release of Imran Khan’s detained sisters and called on the authorities to stop arrests and detention of political leaders and workers. The demand reaches beyond the jail, into a wider standoff in which PTI members detained during the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emergency crackdown remain in custody, and the courts are seized of the legal test over emergency rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The health question also runs through the constitutional politics PakMirror has tracked, including the proposed 28th Amendment and the debate over new provinces.
The background the examination does not erase
The examination also leaves untouched a longer medical history. Towards the end of January, reports emerged that he was suffering from central retinal vein occlusion, an eye condition affecting blood flow through the retina. He received treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, and his family has since demanded that he be transferred to a hospital of their choice for further treatment. That demand is the same one the 18 August order was meant to answer.
Access to him has been a separate running dispute. On 2 November, after nearly seven months, he met his lawyer Salman Safdar inside the jail, in a 40-minute meeting that, by the lawyer’s own account, was too short to cover all the matters needing attention. Bushra Bibi met the lawyer after 11 months. Both discussed their health and living conditions and gave fresh instructions on several cases. An Islamabad High Court order permits meetings twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but PTI leaders have repeatedly alleged that access has remained restricted.
What happens next
Three questions now decide the matter. Will the medical report be published or placed before the Supreme Court? Will the early-hearing application be listed? And will the 18 August order for a hospital transfer finally be carried out, and when? Until the first of those is answered, the examination settles nothing.
