By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: Imran Khan was transported from Adiala Jail to a hospital in Islamabad on Monday to receive his fifth course of treatment for a serious eye condition, intensifying a months-long political dispute over the adequacy of care being provided to Pakistan’s most prominent political prisoner.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) confirmed that the former prime minister was brought to its facility and administered a fifth anti-VEGF intravitreal injection — a procedure used to treat right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), a condition affecting blood flow to the retina that was first diagnosed in Khan in late January.
In a statement, the hospital said Khan had been examined by ophthalmologists prior to the procedure and found to be “clinically stable”, with optical coherence tomography showing “clinical improvement” in his condition. “During the course of his stay, he remained vitally stable before, during and after the procedure and was discharged along with instructions for further care,” the statement said.
The visit came roughly six weeks after his fourth injection on 28 April. His treatment began on 24 January, with subsequent doses administered in late February and late March. The course of injections is ongoing, with no discharge from jail between hospital visits.
Yet the clinical picture presented by PIMS has done little to quieten the political storm surrounding Khan’s imprisonment and health. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan took to social media before the hospital’s statement was issued, claiming he had only just been informed that Khan had been taken to PIMS the previous night. “I have just been informed that Khan sab was taken last night to PIMS once again for an injection and then shifted back to Adiyala,” he wrote on X.
The episode highlighted a pattern that has become a source of deepening frustration for PTI: party officials frequently learn of Khan’s medical appointments only after the fact, or through informal channels, with the government and hospital issuing formal statements hours or days later. Barrister Gohar renewed calls for Khan to be transferred from Adiala Jail to Shifa International Hospital — a demand the opposition has pressed repeatedly — and urged that Khan’s family be granted immediate access to visit him.
The government has dismissed accusations of obstructing Khan’s treatment as politically motivated, but the controversy has resisted easy resolution. In February, a report prepared by Barrister Salman Safdar, submitted to a Supreme Court bench under judicial direction, revealed that Khan had told officials his right eye was functioning at only 15 per cent capacity. The court subsequently ordered that Khan be granted access to his personal physicians inside Adiala Jail and permitted telephone contact with his sons, Kasim and Sulaiman.
A subsequent medical board assessment, carried out by Dr Nadeem Qureshi and Dr Arif, reported that Khan’s vision in his right eye had improved significantly — from 6/36 to 6/9 — while his left eye retained 6/6 vision with corrective glasses. The board did not recommend hospitalisation, a conclusion the opposition has continued to contest.
Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, has also received ophthalmic treatment in detention. She was examined at Adiala in March after reporting blurred vision, black spots, and flashes in her right eye. She was diagnosed with posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), along with myopia and astigmatism, and prescribed eye drops and glasses pending a follow-up review. She subsequently underwent eye surgery on the evening of 16 April.
Both Khan and Bushra Bibi remain incarcerated at Adiala Jail, where they have been held since being sentenced on 20 December 2025 to 17 years in prison in the Toshakhana-II case. The charges relate to allegations that the couple unlawfully retained a Bulgari jewellery set gifted to them by the Saudi crown prince during an official state visit. Khan has been in continuous custody since August 2023, when he was first imprisoned in a separate £190 million corruption case. He additionally faces outstanding charges under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act in connection with the violent protests that erupted on 9 May 2023.
His imprisonment has made him simultaneously Pakistan’s most powerful opposition figure and its most closely watched patient — a condition that has transformed every hospital visit into a political event, and every medical bulletin into a contested document.
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