For months now, crucial query round former Pakistan PM Imran Khan has been whether or not he may stroll out of jail anytime quickly. After rumours about his dying in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail surfaced months in the past, questions over Imran Khan’s well-being have returned once more. Is the cricketer-turner politician even alive?
An explosive however unverified declare by Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan has added to anxieties surrounding the jailed former PM’s well-being. The Emmy-nominated journalist, now based mostly within the US, has claimed that “three senior navy sources informed him they believed Imran may need died in jail”.
Wajahat’s declare has landed at a very unstable second. On Tuesday, Imran Khan’s household and colleagues of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) occasion complained of being denied entry to the previous PM amid issues over his well being.
The nervousness round Khan’s wellbeing is now feeding right into a deliberate showdown. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM and PTI chief Sohail Afridi has claimed that greater than “two million folks had been able to take to the streets” and warned that “the anger amongst Pakistan’s youth may develop into unattainable to comprise” by Pakistan’s hybrid regime that has CDF Subject Marshal Asim Munir at its helm. The PTI has introduced a long march towards Islamabad on September 27, whereas threatening protests even earlier than that if Imran’s household and medical doctors proceed to be denied entry.
The strain on the Pakistani regime can be coming from exterior the nation. A bipartisan group of 13 US lawmakers has written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking him to boost Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi’s detention circumstances straight with Islamabad. Their letter cites a UN Particular Rapporteur’s issues over Imran’s extended solitary confinement and allegations regarding his well being.
Collectively, the developments have created a flamable combine. There’s an unverified dying declare. A household is demanding entry. There’s worldwide concern over Khan’s detention circumstances and the PTI management threatening to carry two-million folks onto Islamabad’s streets.
WHY IS IMRAN KHAN IN JAIL?
Former PM Imran Khan has been imprisoned since August 5, 2023, and is presently serving a 14-year sentence within the £190-million Al-Qadir Belief corruption case. His spouse, Bushra Bibi, was sentenced to seven years in the identical case in January 2025. Each problem their convictions. Imran additionally faces pending trials linked to the Might 9, 2023 protests the place PTI supporters attacked Military instalments (garrisons, outposts) throughout Pakistan.
Behind this battle is a political confrontation that has outlined Pakistan because the Nineteen Sixties. It is the tussle between the “elected” civilian management and the navy institution, now headed by Subject Marshal Asim Munir. Imran has repeatedly blamed Munir and the institution for his “illegal” incarceration.
Munir, arguably Pakistan’s strongest man, has had unhealthy blood with Khan going again years. When Khan was prime minister and Munir headed the ISI, Khan needed Munir faraway from the put up over the latter’s “interference” in the former’s wife’s affairs. The identical Munir is now on the verge of staging a coup in Pakistan, as specialists are to be believed.
Khan, now captive for more than three years, was additionally rumoured to have died in jail in November final yr, as his household and occasion colleagues struggled to get entry to him and confirm his well-being. Those rumours were put to rest weeks later, on December 2, when his sister Uzma Khanum met Khan at Adiala Jail and mentioned he was bodily properly, although being saved in isolation.
It’s towards this backdrop that questions over Imran Khan’s well-being look like taking form from a serious confrontation between the PTI and Pakistan’s navy institution.
‘THREE MILITARY SOURCES’ AND THE IMRAN DEATH CLAIM
The most recent wave of hypothesis over Imran Khan’s well-being was triggered by Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan.
In response to a YouTube video posted on his channel on August 10, Wajahat Saeed Khan mentioned, “That is our reporting. We’ve carried out this reporting from GHQ, from senior officers based mostly at GHQ. That is the attitude of at the least three officers. It’s a private perspective… They have not seen something with their very own eyes, so it’s not confirmed. However when you’re sitting inside GHQ, you aren’t sitting in Quetta Cantonment, at some Frontier Corps test put up, or someplace in Waziristan. You might be sitting inside Rawalpindi, contained in the stomach of the beast. You might be sitting on the headquarters”.
GHQ, or Common Headquarters, in Rawalpindi is the command headquarters of the Pakistan Military and the nerve centre of its navy management.
“Three senior GHQ-based officers have expressed this in several ways in which Imran Khan is not with us, and that’s the reason why the Pakistan Military and the Military Chief are protecting him away from the remainder of the nation… That is critical. I hope it’s not true. It’s not confirmed but…. Three senior navy sources worry that Imran Khan is not with us. They have not seen something with their very own eyes, however they’ve heard issues with their ears,” mentioned Wajahat Saeed Khan.
Whereas Wajahat Saeed Khan’s declare has given the hearsay round Khan’s dying some traction, the PTI is now combating over entry to him.
PTI mentioned that Imran’s household, attorneys, occasion colleagues and private medical doctors have repeatedly struggled to satisfy him. His sisters have expressed concern over his situation, whereas the occasion has demanded an unbiased medical evaluation.
‘MORE THAN TWO MILLION’ READY: PTI LEADER, KP CM AFRIDI
The BBC Urdu reported that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) CM and PTI chief Sohail Afridi publicly provided an assurance {that a} assembly wouldn’t be used to transmit political messages. Afridi added that the PTI was not making an unconstitutional demand and assured that no person would come out of a gathering with Imran and “discuss politics”.
The phrase “discuss politics”has been utilized by navy and authorities figures to accuse Imran’s sisters and PTI leaders of turning jail conferences right into a conduit for the previous PM’s political messaging.
Even because the PTI management and Khan’s household weren’t allowed to satisfy him, the priority over his well-being has now been become a mobilisation name. Afridi has claimed that PTI has greater than two million folks prepared to return out and warned that the authorities may battle to comprise them.
“Alhamdulillah, our persons are united and prepared. We’ve greater than two million folks. The Pakistani PM’s advisor, Rana Sanaullah, should know that when folks come out in such numbers, nobody will get an opportunity to regulate them, nor will they be capable to. I see lots of anger among the many younger folks, and they’ll come out in enormous numbers. Our preparations are agency,” Afridi mentioned in a clip shared by veteran Pakistani journalist, Fakhar Ur Rehman.
The PTI has introduced a march to Islamabad on September 27, including that its management and the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan opposition alliance are backing the mobilisation. Afridi has additionally sought to painting the agitation as an expression of anger extending past Imran’s imprisonment.
“On September 27, Pakistan will see how many individuals come out and with what ardour and willpower. Pakistan’s youth are fed up. They’re indignant with the system and with all of the establishments… Pakistan is in a horrible state, however their precedence is to maintain Imran Khan in isolation,” he added.
Till then, Afridi mentioned, if entry to Imran Khan was not supplied to PTI MPs, they might protest exterior the Supreme Courtroom, then transfer in the direction of Adiala Jail, adopted by protests throughout Pakistan earlier than the September 27 lengthy march, reported the BBC Urdu.
US LAWMAKERS RAISE IMRAN KHAN TORTURE, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT CONCERNS
The controversy in Pakistan has now reached Washington. At the least 13 bipartisan US lawmakers have requested Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take up the detention of Imran and Bushra with Pakistan. The letter refers to a December 2025 communication from UN Particular Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards, which raised issues over Imran’s detention circumstances.
The UN professional mentioned reviews indicated that Imran had been held in extended solitary confinement, typically for as much as 23 hours a day, and referred to as on Pakistan to take speedy steps regarding his detention circumstances.
The congressional letter additionally cited reviews of extreme injury to Imran’s proper eye and his lawyer’s declare that he had misplaced 85% of his imaginative and prescient. It individually raised issues over Bushra Bibi’s detention, together with allegations about her cell, entry to meals and ingesting water, medical remedy and restrictions on household and authorized visits.
The US lawmakers requested the State Division to overview the couple’s circumstances and “deal with their continued detention and human rights straight with the Authorities of Pakistan”, reported Karachi-based newspaper, The Categorical Tribune.
WHY MUNIR-LED ESTABLISHMENT, IMRAN KHAN ARE AT LOGGERHEADS?
Imran Khan’s incarceration can’t be separated from his extraordinary rupture with Pakistan’s navy institution led by Munir.
As soon as seen as benefiting from institution help, Imran more and more clashed with the navy earlier than and after his removing as prime minister by means of a no-confidence vote in April 2022. After his ouster, the confrontation grew to become open.
In June 2023, Imran mentioned that the navy and its intelligence equipment had been making an attempt to destroy PTI and mentioned he anticipated to be jailed. He particularly accused Asim Munir of continuous a marketing campaign towards him. The navy, in the meantime, blamed PTI leaders for the Might 9 assaults on navy installations and vowed motion towards these accountable.
The crackdown following Might 9 reshaped Pakistani politics. PTI leaders and workers were arrested, some had been even tried in navy courts. A collection of prison circumstances had been slapped on Imran Khan, which the PTI insisted are politically motivated. Three years after Imran entered jail, the confrontation has reached one other harmful level when the PTI is warning the institution of protests with 20 million folks.
Proper now, there is no such thing as a verified proof that Imran Khan is useless. However restricted entry to him, issues raised by US lawmakers over his detention, an unverified declare attributed to navy sources and PTI’s risk of mass mobilisation may flip the hearsay into a much bigger headache for Pakistan’s institution.
And on September 27, PTI hopes to show that right into a present of power on Pakistan’s streets.
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