By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of Imran Khan’s party has demanded the immediate implementation of a Supreme Court order to move the jailed former prime minister to hospital, after his family said his blood pressure had spiked to 192.
Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who leads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said on Friday that reports reaching the party about Khan’s health were “not encouraging” and that there would be “no compromise” on his treatment.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament House in Islamabad, Gohar said the party and “the entire nation” were worried, and called Khan’s health its “foremost priority”.
He said the party had asked the Supreme Court to enforce its order of 18 August, when a three-member bench led by Justice Shahid Waheed directed that Khan be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for a comprehensive examination. The order also called for a medical board to oversee his care. The party has applied for an early hearing, though it was not clear when the court would take it up.
The order was never carried out as the party wanted. Officials took Khan instead to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences before returning him to prison. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar blamed a security situation created by PTI workers on the route and outside the hospital. The party denies this and accuses the government of deliberately flouting the court. The government also filed a review petition against the order.
The latest alarm followed a statement from Khan’s sister, Rubina Khan, shared on social media by his son Kasim Khan. According to local media, it said Khan had conveyed that his blood pressure had suddenly risen to 192, and demanded that he be admitted at once to an independent medical facility in the presence of his personal doctor. She also alleged that he had accused the authorities of failing to provide proper treatment.
Kasim Khan expressed concern about his father’s prolonged isolation and warned of serious consequences for his health.
The source of the figure remains unclear. The party’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, met Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, at Adiala jail on Monday for 40 minutes, his first meeting with Khan in seven months and with Khan in 11. Safdar said they briefed him on their health, living conditions and pending legal cases. He has since distanced himself from the reports, saying he was not their source and that his role was strictly legal, not that of a messenger.
Sources familiar with the meeting told The News that Khan had mentioned his blood pressure rising to around 190 on one occasion but was otherwise generally fit, with no sign of an immediate medical emergency. They said he was particularly worried about his wife’s health, including a reported eye problem.
No independently verified medical assessment has been made public. The government has previously rejected allegations of medical neglect as baseless. In August, a medical board of Pims specialists recommended more frequent contact with his immediate family, saying it could help control his anxiety and blood pressure.
Gohar also called for an end to political tensions, saying the party’s long march was over, “the provincial government is gone” and nothing was happening in parliament. The federal government imposed governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the PTI governs, on 11 October. He demanded the release of detained lawmakers, party workers and supporters, and said Khan’s personal doctors must be allowed to examine him.
He described Khan’s detention as unjust, said the cases against him were politically motivated and baseless, and called it inhumane to keep him behind bars while denying access to basic healthcare and limiting visits from family and lawyers. The government denies the cases are politically motivated.
Gohar said the party had received no information on the condition of Khan’s sisters and demanded their immediate release. Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan have been held since late September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, as the PTI prepared a protest march to Islamabad.
The Islamabad High Court has allowed Mr Khan to meet family, lawyers and associates on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but access has remained largely restricted despite repeated orders. On Tuesday, a day after Safdar’s visit, Gohar, party secretary general Salman Akram Raja and Khan’s nephew Abdullah Khan were all turned away at the jail, according to Dawn.
The PTI’s core committee met on Thursday and late into the night, then urged the chief justice to ensure the court’s orders on treatment were enforced. It called the reports of a blood pressure surge “extremely alarming” and said Khan’s health should be treated as a serious humanitarian and medical emergency rather than merely a political or legal dispute. It also expressed concern over a fall suffered in prison by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the party’s jailed vice-chairperson, and asked for him to be taken to hospital.
Khan, 74, was removed from office in April 2022 and has been in Adiala jail since August 2023. He faces multiple corruption and terrorism-related cases. An eye condition, right central retinal vein occlusion, came to light in late January, and he has since been taken to hospital several times.
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