By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Bushra Bibi, the wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, asked Islamabad High Court on Saturday to suspend her seven-year prison sentence in a major corruption case, arguing that her health had deteriorated sharply after an eye operation performed in custody without her family’s knowledge or consent.
In a petition filed through her lawyers, Salman Safdar and Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, Bibi urged the court to hear the matter urgently and grant her relief on medical and humanitarian grounds while her appeal against conviction remains unresolved more than a year later. She is being held at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, the same facility where her husband has been imprisoned since his ouster in 2022.
The filing describes a sequence of events that Bibi’s lawyers portrayed as opaque and potentially unlawful. According to the petition, Bibi underwent surgery at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Rawalpindi under circumstances that were never disclosed in advance to her legal team or relatives. Only after her daughters were permitted a visit on April 17 did they learn of the procedure: they found their mother in distress, her eyes bandaged, her vision impaired.
The application contends that jail officials provided no medical records — neither a diagnosis, surgical notes nor details of postoperative care — and that access to counsel and family was subsequently restricted in what the petition called “a pattern of concealment” regarding her condition. It further alleges that prison authorities disregarded a prior court order directing them to facilitate a meeting between Bibi and her lawyers, preventing her from seeking timely legal help.
Bibi’s lawyers argued that her underlying medical condition worsened because of inadequate care during her incarceration and that she now requires constant supervision and assistance. Continued detention after major surgery, they maintained, amounts to “inhumane and degrading treatment.” Citing legal precedents, the petition said severe medical hardship and the absence of proper prison medical facilities constitute valid grounds for suspending a sentence or granting bail, particularly when an appeal is pending.
The lawyers asked the high court to summon jail administrators and hospital officials, compel the production of complete medical files, and order Bibi’s immediate transfer to a specialized facility for appropriate treatment. Jail authorities offered a different account in a statement issued after Bibi was returned to Adiala on Friday. According to the superintendent, she had complained of impaired vision in her right eye. Ophthalmologists were called in promptly, a diagnosis of retinal detachment was made, and surgery was advised and performed, the statement said.
Prison officials said the response was immediate and appropriate. The development is the latest chapter in the legal troubles that have engulfed the Khan family since his removal from power. Bibi was convicted last year in a £190 million corruption case, which centered on allegations that she and others extended undue favors to property developer Malik Riaz to help retrieve funds he had allegedly laundered and parked in Britain. Her appeal against that conviction is still before the high court.In December 2025, she received a separate 17-year sentence in the Toshakhana 2 case, involving the alleged improper acquisition of a valuable jewelry set that had been presented to her husband by the Saudi crown prince during a visit in May 2021.
The gifts, received by Pakistani officials, are supposed to be deposited in the Toshakhana, the government repository for state presents. The petition comes days after reports that Imran Khan himself has been receiving treatment for an eye ailment that surfaced in January. Neither Khan nor Bibi has been convicted in cases that their supporters dismiss as politically motivated attempts by the military-backed government to sideline the former prime minister and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
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