By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan had a medical procedure for an eye condition at an Islamabad hospital last week, the information minister said on Thursday, as his family and supporters voiced growing alarm over his health and access to care.
Attaullah Tarar, speaking to a private television channel, confirmed that Khan, held at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, was transported to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) late on Jan. 24 for what he described as a brief intervention. “Eye specialists checked him right there in the jail, and they decided he needed to go to Pims for this minor procedure,” Tarar said. “It was Saturday night when they took him over, based on what those doctors advised.”
Once at the hospital, Khan underwent further checks on his eyes, Tarar said, and with his signed consent, doctors carried out the 20-minute process before sending him back to jail along with follow-up guidance. “His vital signs stayed steady throughout, no issues at all. The man’s in good health,” Tarar said.
He pointed out that prison regulations ensure all inmates get medical attention as needed. “That’s just how it works under the rules, and let me say again, he’s doing fine,” the minister added. Pressed on the worries circulating about Khan’s condition, Tarar brushed them aside, repeating that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder was “absolutely fine.” He stressed that the move to Pims came straight from the experts’ assessment. “He’s okay now, and he was perfectly stable during the whole thing.”
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, PTI officials announced they’d picked up reliable information that Khan had central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) in his right eye, a blockage that could spell serious trouble for his vision if not handled quickly and correctly, according to medical advice they cited. That same day, PTI lawmakers lodged a new plea with the Islamabad High Court, pushing for clearance to visit Khan in jail.
A senior Pims doctor, who spoke anonymously, detailed how Khan arrived under heavy guard that Saturday evening for the treatment, which ended up stretching longer than initially suggested. “The procedure wrapped up sometime in the early hours, so he didn’t head back until Sunday,” the doctor said. He noted the unusual buzz around the hospital that night, with surgical areas and anaesthesia facilities sealed off well before Khan showed up.
Before Tarar’s account came out, Khan’s sister, Noreen Niazi, had publicly questioned the secrecy if the treatment reports were accurate, demanding transparency on his medical records and why his relatives and legal team were left out of the loop. “As his sister, I’m calling out those in charge,” Niazi posted on X that morning. She recounted hearing from journalists that Khan was whisked to Pims after dark for eye care, spending three hours there before a hushed return to Adiala amid what she called an eerie quiet. “If this is all true, it’s outright criminal,” Niazi said. “Why the reluctance to level with his family and lawyers? Who’s behind the cover-up, and why? What’s really happening with his care in that jail, and why shut us out?”
She insisted on immediate access for family, his own physicians and attorneys, plus full disclosure of his health files. “This isn’t asking nicely anymore – consider it a last heads-up,” Niazi warned.
Khan isn’t some ordinary detainee, she stressed, charging that risking his well-being was like trying to dim the nation’s light. “Mark my words: if his vision suffers even a bit from this neglect, it won’t go quietly. No one’s sight will be spared after that,” she added.
In a separate post on X, Khan’s son Kasim Khan accused officials of stonewalling proper treatment and barring trusted doctors. “I am even denied the right to speak to him. This is not governance. This is authoritarian cruelty,” he wrote. Kasim said his father had endured more than 900 days in a grim isolation cell, cut off from family and his chosen medics, and warned that untreated CRVO risked irreversible blindness without swift hospital-level intervention. He urged rights advocates to step in “before it is too late”. “The world must see that in Pakistan today, democracy is hollow and basic human rights are being crushed.”
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