Pakistan Supreme Court orders medical board to examine Imran Khan’s reported vision loss

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered authorities to set up a medical board to examine jailed former premier Imran Khan's eyes following a report about vision loss in one of them.

The apex court also ordered authorities to allow the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder to speak with his children.

Khan has been in jail since August 5, 2023, when he was arrested at his Lahore residence after his conviction in a corruption case. Currently, he is incarcerated at the high-security Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan resumed hearing a case about the living conditions of the 73-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician and ordered a detailed check-up before February 16.

Last month, Khan was rushed to a hospital in Islamabad, where a medical procedure for an eye ailment was performed. However, his party has been raising concerns about his health.  “The issue of Imran’s health is most important,” Afridi said during the hearing, adding that “intervention was necessary”.

The court also ordered that Khan should be allowed to hold a phone call with his children.

Afridi noted that the issue of Khan’s “telephone calls with his children is also important”.

During the hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan affirmed that it was the state’s responsibility to provide medical facilities.

The order came after the Supreme Court on Tuesday tasked PTI lawyer Salman Safdar to meet Khan in Adiala Jail and submit a report on the former prime minister's living conditions.

The lawyer submitted the report after the visit.

It was the first meeting with Khan by anyone since December 2, when his sister Uzma Khan was allowed to meet him for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Dawn newspaper, citing the report submitted by the lawyer, reported that it detailed Safdar’s meeting with Khan, the cell conditions, the facilities and amenities provided to the ex-premier, a description of his living compound and the lawyer’s process of reaching the jail.

In his report, Safdar quoted Khan as telling him that “despite the treatment administered (including an injection), he has been left with only 15 per cent vision in his right eye”.  Khan told Safdar that approximately “three to four months earlier, until October 2025, he had normal 6 x 6 vision in both eyes”.

He then began experiencing persistent blurred and hazy vision, which he repeatedly reported to the then-jail superintendent, but “no action was taken by the jail authorities”.

The report read: “[Khan] stated that he subsequently suffered a sudden and complete loss of vision in his right eye, following which an ophthalmologist from Pims Hospital, Dr Muhammad Arif, was called to examine him.

“According to [Khan], he was diagnosed with a blood clot that caused severe damage, and despite the treatment administered (including an injection), he has been left with only 15 per cent vision in his right eye.” A day ago, Safdar also denied making any statement on Khan's health on Tuesday, making it clear that if anything was attributed to him in this regard, it was “misrepresented and misreported”.

On Tuesday, the day he met Khan, Safdar had told reporters that the incarcerated leader was "fine and healthy".