ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court-ordered medical board has examined jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan after his lawyers and family accused authorities of delaying hospital care for a worsening eye condition. Officials said his vision has improved with treatment, while his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said the process lacked transparency and demanded access for his personal doctors.
Khan, 73, has been held at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail since August 2023 after being convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His legal team told the Supreme Court that he had complained of blurred and hazy vision for months before suffering major vision loss in his right eye, and said the delay in specialist care contributed to the deterioration.
The Supreme Court directed authorities to arrange an examination by a panel of doctors and to facilitate a telephone call between Khan and his children by Feb. 16. His family said the call took place and lasted about 20 minutes, calling it a rare contact after a lengthy gap. The court’s intervention followed submissions to the bench describing the seriousness of Khan’s eye condition.
Doctors who examined Khan on Feb. 15 reported that his unaided vision measured 6/24 partial in the right eye and 6/9 in the left, improving with glasses to 6/9 partial in the right and 6/6 in the left. The report described retinal hemorrhages in the right eye and noted that macular swelling was resolving, with central macular thickness reduced from 550 to 350. The team recommended eye drops, further imaging tests and said a second anti-VEGF dose could be administered on schedule.
Dispute over access to doctors
PTI rejected the jail-based examination, saying it was conducted without Khan’s family and personal physicians and calling it “malicious.” The party and relatives have pressed for unrestricted access to private specialists and for treatment at a specialized eye facility, arguing that prison arrangements have not met the standard of care required for a condition diagnosed as central retinal vein occlusion in the right eye.
Government ministers dismissed claims that Khan was being denied treatment. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said there was nothing to worry about and described the latest assessment as showing substantial improvement in vision with corrective lenses. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said leading eye specialists would continue Khan’s treatment and that a detailed report would be submitted to the Supreme Court, without specifying a date or the medical facility involved.
Political and legal backdrop
The medical report said senior specialists from Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Rawalpindi and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad were part of the evaluation team. It also said PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan and an opposition leader visited Islamabad for follow-up and that the doctors briefed Khan’s personal physicians by phone, adding that they expressed satisfaction with the treatment provided and the follow-up plan.
Khan was removed from office in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022 and remains a central figure in Pakistan’s politics despite his imprisonment and multiple legal cases. PTI mounted protests in Islamabad and other cities in recent days, urging authorities to move him from prison to a hospital for specialized care, and some lawmakers and allies have staged a sit-in outside parliament as the Supreme Court reviews compliance with its directions. – By Content Syndication Services.