Pakistan’s PTI demands access to jailed Khan after overnight hospital visit

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan ⁠is taken ⁠to a government hospital in Islamabad for eye treatment and returned to prison.

Islamabad, Pakistan – The party of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded access to its leader after he was taken to a hospital overnight for treatment and sent back to prison.

Khan, ۷۴, briefly left the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for an eye examination at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the government hospital said on Wednesday.

In a statement, PIMS said a medical check was conducted on Khan on the advice of his ophthalmologist.

Khan has received a series of intravitreal injections in his right eye to treat central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), a condition diagnosed after he reported reduced vision. He received his first injection in January.

PIMS said Khan received another injection overnight.

“His vital parameters were found to be normal. He was clinically stable, and his general physical examination was normal,” the hospital said, adding that he was discharged about ۲:۳۰am (۲۱:۳۰ GMT on Tuesday) with instructions for further care and follow-up.

Khan, a former cricket star who served as premier from ۲۰۱۸ to ۲۰۲۲, has been behind bars since August ۲۰۲۳ on multiple corruption charges he denies and calls politically motivated. The government rejects the allegation.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Wednesday said the overnight hospital visit and his return to his prison cell raise “deeply troubling questions” about his health, the quality of his medical care and the transparency surrounding his condition.

“A human being’s health is not a political bargaining chip. Nor can the medical treatment of a former prime minister be reduced to a procedural formality,” the PTI said, adding that the “state bears full responsibility for his safety and wellbeing”.

“His family, personal doctors and legal team must be given immediate and unrestricted access,” the party said.

PTI information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told Al Jazeera that Khan’s family and personal doctors were not told about the hospital visit and the party learned of it from news reports.

“No one from the family or party was there [at the hospital]; our personal physician was not there either,” he said.

During a hearing on Tuesday, Khan’s lawyer Salman Safdar told the Islamabad High Court that while Khan had said his eyesight had improved, his blood pressure remained a concern.

Safdar had appeared on behalf of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to appeal against their convictions in a property case.

In response, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told reporters that Khan was receiving the required medical care and his treatment was not being neglected.

In August, the Supreme Court ordered that Khan should be moved to a private hospital of his choice in Islamabad. Instead, he was taken to PIMS and returned to jail.