By staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The sisters of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan delivered a blistering public attack on Wednesday on the leadership of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party and the Islamabad High Court, accusing senior figures of silence, poor coordination and failing to secure timely medical attention or court hearings for the ailing politician.
Aleema Khanum, speaking to reporters outside the high court alongside her sisters Uzma Khan and Noureen Khanum, made the family’s health concerns paramount. No decisions about Imran Khan’s treatment should be taken without their permission, she said, insisting the 73-year-old former cricket star turned politician must remain at the center of any arrangements.
The criticism came one day after Khan was transferred early Tuesday to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a follow-up intravitreal injection to treat central retinal vein occlusion in his right eye, a condition that surfaced in late January and has since become a flashpoint between the government and the opposition. The family and party objected to the secrecy surrounding the procedure and the complete exclusion of relatives and personal physicians.
Aleema questioned Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s Feb. 17 statement, in which he said Khan had received treatment but also accused Aleema of exploiting her brother’s condition for political gain. “Why doesn’t anyone deny or confirm what treatment was carried out?” she asked. Party leaders had been unable to provide details, she added. The family had recommended specific doctors — including Asim, Uzma Khan and Barki — for examination at Shifa International Hospital, she said, but those names were rejected or ignored. Instead, the family learned only afterward that the treatment had taken place at PIMS. “We were demanding treatment at Shifa International Hospital,” Aleema said. “Instead, we were sent to jail when we raised the issue.”
She alleged that government doctors were under pressure and said the family would no longer confine its concerns to closed-door meetings but would raise them openly. The party leadership, she remarked, appeared “as relaxed as if Imran Khan has been treated.” Anyone unable to bear the burden of advancing his political narrative should step aside, she added.
Aleema turned her frustration toward prominent PTI lawyers and office-bearers, naming Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, Hamid Khan, Ali Zafar, Latif Khosa and Barrister Gohar. “Where are the senior lawyers who were given party tickets?” she asked. “The founder repeatedly asked them to get his cases filed.” Information about meetings and medical arrangements seemed to come from Naqvi rather than party representatives, she complained. “Will we get information from the minister or from our own party?”
The sisters stressed that Khan remains the undisputed focus of PTI and national opposition politics. “He is our brother, and politics revolves around him,” Aleema said. “We will speak for our brother, no matter what Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi does.” Uzma Khan added that the family is often left in the dark about developments in Khan’s cases. “The party leadership is nowhere to be seen and there is complete silence,” she said.
Separately, senior lawyer and PTI general secretary Salman Akram Raja told reporters that court orders for twice-weekly meetings — one for lawyers and one for family members — were not being implemented, despite the provincial chief minister’s appearance at the high court. Contempt petitions over the non-compliance were going unheard, he said, and applications for medical examinations had also languished. The high court had become a “closed door” for the party, Raja contended.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who reached the court and tried to address Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar in open court, said he had been ignored. “I went to the rostrum while fasting and greeted the chief justice, but he did not respond,” Afridi told reporters, adding that the party sought peaceful protest rather than agitation.
Barrister Salman Safdar warned that if bail applications were not fixed promptly, the matter would go directly to the Supreme Court. Later Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court administration scheduled an early hearing on a related plea for Thursday. In a parallel move, PTI filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking Khan’s immediate transfer to Shifa International Hospital for specialized retina care and access to his personal physicians, Dr. Faisal Sultan and Dr. Aasim Yusuf. Filed by senior lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa, the plea highlighted the “mindboggling” secrecy of recent examinations and procedures conducted without family, lawyers or independent doctors present.
It requested that family members be informed and granted reasonable access during treatment, that medical reports be shared with counsel, and that lawyers receive access to their client for effective representation. Khosa noted Khan’s advancing age and declining health as matters of grave concern for his family and the nation at large.
Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI chairman, arrived at the high court after appearing at the Supreme Court. He acknowledged a “communication gap” within the party leadership but insisted that all leaders were making sincere and coordinated efforts to secure Khan’s release. The party had approached the high court 17 times and the Supreme Court 14 times in the past year, he said, with one consistent demand: “Fix Khan sahib’s cases, hear them and make decisions based on justice.”
Gohar lamented delays in pleas for suspension of sentence in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case — pending more than a year — and a second Toshakhana matter, both of which he said should have been decided far sooner under judicial policy timelines. He expressed sadness over the chief justice’s response to the provincial chief minister but noted that assurances had been given that both cases would be fixed for hearing Thursday.
Khan has been in Adiala jail since August 2023, convicted in multiple cases that he and his supporters maintain were brought for political reasons after his removal in a 2022 no-confidence vote. A medical report from a Feb. 15 examination at the prison showed his right eye at 6/24 partial vision unaided. The initial procedure occurred Jan. 24, confirmed by the government five days later. Hospital officials described him as clinically stable after Tuesday’s follow-up, and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar briefed the Senate on the matter. The government has rejected allegations of opacity or inadequate care.
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