Imran Khan might not survive his solitary confinement in prison, his sons said, amid mounting concern over the former Pakistani prime minister’s deteriorating health.
Following a Supreme Court order, Khan, 73, was taken to a hospital last week, but brought back to the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi just hours later. The jailed leader’s UK-based sons, Sulaiman Khan and Kasim Khan, claimed that the military-backed government defied the court which had directed him to be examined at a private hospital. He was taken to a state-run facility instead.
“At this point it’s looking more likely than not that he won’t be able to survive his stay in prison,” Kasim Khan said at a online press conference.
The former prime minister was in "desperate need of going to a doctor, of going to a hospital for a prolonged period”, he added. “Instead he had an hour’s check-up in a government facility, with the establishment people looking at him. It’s horrible to hear.”
Khan's sons claimed they had been denied visas to visit Pakistan and hadn’t been allowed to speak to their father since March this year. The last time they met their father was in November 2022.
“Any chance to see him we would take in a heartbeat. We would love to come to Pakistan, but it is getting bleaker. We would love to see father but our visas have been denied, stalled and rejected,” Kasim Khan said.
On 18 August, the Supreme Court directed Adiala prison authorities to move Khan to the Shifa Hospital in Islamabad for medical treatment and evaluation by an independent medical panel. But Khan was taken to the state-run Institute of Medical Sciences on 20 August where he was declared medically fit and returned to his solitary confinement.
His sister Uzma Khan, who was present during the examination last week, confirmed that Khan was stable, but added that the former prime minister repeatedly said he was being tortured in prison.
Authorities insist that Khan’s health is improving, but there is no independent confirmation yet.
Khan’s international counsel Jared Genser said his prison conditions amounted to “slow-motion murder”. "Imagine if we can do this to Imran Khan, who everyone in the world knows about,” he said. “What could we do to you, someone who the world doesn't know about."
The UN special rapporteur on torture spoke out against Khan’s treatment three times in 2025 and called for his solitary confinement and inhumane detention conditions to end.
Khan has been held mostly in solitary confinement since August 2023.
He was removed as prime minister in April 2022 through a parliamentary vote of no confidence, which he later claimed was orchestrated by the nation’s powerful military at the behest of the US. He was arrested during nationwide unrest in May 2023 and charged with over 100 criminal offences, cases which he and his party say are politically motivated.
He has since been acquitted on several charges, including those related to official secrets and his marriage to Bushra Bibi. Khan is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence in a corruption case. He and his wife were also sentenced to jail terms in December 2025 in a separate case involving their handling of state gifts.
Human rights activists have reiterated calls to restore Khan’s access to family and lawyers, while 21 international cricketing icons have, in a letter to prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, renewed their appeal to provide adequate medical treatment to the cricketer-turned-politician.
