Imran Khan, Jailed Former Pakistani PM, Moved to Hospital on Court Order

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan —

Imran Khan, the jailed former prime minister of Pakistan, was moved from Adiala jail to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad in the early hours of Friday, his party said, after Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the government to get him medical treatment within 48 hours.

"Former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been shifted from Adiala Jail to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad following Supreme Court order," Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said in a statement, according to Reuters, as reported by The Straits Times. Police sealed off streets around the hospital with barriers and armored vehicles, and hundreds of security personnel were posted nearby, according to the BBC and The Guardian.

A three-judge panel of the Supreme Court issued the order on Tuesday, directing authorities to have Khan examined by a medical board that includes his personal physician, Faisal Sultan, and an eye specialist, Channel NewsAsia reported. "We are mindful of the constitutional and legal obligation ... to safeguard the life, health, dignity and security of the prisoner," the panel wrote, according to the BBC and The Guardian. The order also required that Khan, 73, be allowed to see family, something he had been denied for months before his sister visited him in prison on Tuesday night, the BBC reported.

A Fight Over His Eyesight

Khan's lawyers have said for months that his health has deteriorated in custody and that he has lost most of the vision in his right eye. In February, his party said he had only 15 percent of his eyesight left in that eye and was being held in solitary confinement without adequate care, according to the BBC and The Guardian. The government disputed the claim and later said Khan had regained about 70 percent of the vision in the eye, Channel NewsAsia reported. A parliamentary affairs minister said the government would fully comply with the court's ruling, even as it separately asked the court to clarify whether the relief applied only to Khan or to other prisoners as well, according to Channel NewsAsia. The Al Jazeera news network reported that the government had also filed a petition challenging the original order.

A Possible Thaw With The Military

The Straits Times reported that the transfer is seen as a potential first step toward easing tensions between PTI and Pakistan's military establishment, which have been at odds since Khan's ouster in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari called the ruling a "new ray of hope" in an interview with Reuters but said the party would still hold a nationwide march on September 27 to demand access to Khan, faster hearings and his release, according to The Straits Times. Khan's next court hearing is set for September 16, and one of his lawyers, Uzair Bhandari, said he is expected to remain hospitalized at least until then, Al Jazeera reported.

Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 in cases he says are politically motivated, a charge the government denies. He and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to 17 years in a corruption case late last year, the BBC reported, and Khan received a separate 14-year sentence in 2025 over allegations that he obtained land through a corrupt deal with a property developer, according to The Guardian.