Former prime minister Imran Khan was taken from Adiala Jail to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences late on Tuesday night for an eye check-up and treatment for blood pressure problems, then returned to his prison cell, Reuters reported on Wednesday. It was the first known time he had been taken to a hospital since August. On the same day, his party deputy chairman, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was moved from a Lahore jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, where he remains in hospital.
What happened on Tuesday night
Reuters, citing sources, reported the trip. One official said he had an eye check-up at PIMS. “He had some blood pressure issues and was given required treatment last night. He has been shifted back to his prison cell,” the official said. PIMS has issued no statement about the visit, and no medical report has been published.
Khan, 74, has been in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since August 2023. His lawyers say his health has deteriorated in prison and that he has lost significant vision in his right eye. The eye condition behind the dispute is central retinal vein occlusion, which restricts blood flow in the retina. The government has said medical reports disclosed no condition requiring immediate treatment.
Nine days, three medical episodes
The night trip was the third medical episode involving Khan in nine days, and none has produced a published medical finding. On 2 November, PTI said his blood pressure had reached 192 during a meeting with his lawyer at the jail. That reading has not been independently verified, and Salman Safdar, the lawyer at the meeting, has said he was not the source of the alarming health reports.
On Sunday 8 November, a PIMS team examined Khan and Bushra Bibi at Adiala Jail for about two hours. The team checked blood pressure, temperature and pulse and reviewed medication. No findings were disclosed.
On Monday 10 November, the Islamabad High Court heard the couple’s appeals in the 190 million pound case and ordered a one-hour meeting between Khan and his lawyer, Sardar Latif Khosa, after the defence said it had no instructions. No arguments were heard.
An 85-day-old court order still open
The Supreme Court ordered on 18 August that Khan be taken to Shifa International Hospital within 48 hours for assessment. Instead, he was taken to PIMS during the night of 20-21 August, examined by a team including an ophthalmologist, a cardiologist and a physician, declared medically fit and returned to Adiala at about 5am. PIMS later said Shifa specialists had taken part in the eye examination. The contents of the medical fitness report were not disclosed.
PTI has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court over the August transfer, arguing that the order specifically required Shifa. The petition asks the court to order his transfer to Shifa and to consider appointing a court officer to oversee compliance.
Eye treatment at PIMS is not new. In February, Khan was taken to PIMS in the early hours for a second dose of an anti-VEGF injection for his retinal condition, after cardiac tests that were reported normal. The pattern since then has been the same: treatment at PIMS, at night, with the Shifa order still open after 85 days.
Qureshi: heart attack not confirmed
Qureshi, the PTI vice chairman and former foreign minister, has been in custody since August 2023. His lawyer, Barrister Taimoor Malik, said Qureshi collapsed inside Kot Lakhpat Jail on 4 November, falling while walking in his barrack and injuring his knee and arm. Jail authorities sent blood samples to Shaukat Khanum Hospital.
On Tuesday he was shifted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology at about 11am after his health suddenly deteriorated, according to 24NewsHD and Daily Pakistan. Hospital officials said a heart attack has not been medically confirmed. Doctors are awaiting laboratory results from cardiac investigations before a final diagnosis, and are considering angiography. Daily Pakistan reported that he was out of immediate danger but remains under close observation. He remains in hospital.
What happens next
Three questions now frame the story. The first concerns Bushra Bibi, whose affidavit of 7 November said she has a mature cataract, that an operation was advised around 15 November, and sought her full medical records and private treatment at her own expense. That application remains undecided, with no date or hospital announced.
The second concerns Qureshi, whose laboratory results and any angiography decision will show whether Tuesday’s scare was a cardiac event. The third concerns the courts: whether Monday’s one-hour meeting produces instructions so the 190 million pound appeal can finally be argued, and whether the Supreme Court acts on the contempt petition. Until a medical report is published, the health of both men remains a matter of competing accounts rather than evidence.
