Pakistan’s PTI says Imran's health is not a ‘political bargaining chip’, demands access after overnight eye treatment

The party of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded immediate access to him after he was taken to a hospital overnight for eye treatment and subsequently returned to prison.

Khan, 74, was taken from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad for an eye examination, the government-run hospital said on Wednesday.

In a statement, PIMS said Khan underwent a medical check-up on the advice of his ophthalmologist and received another intravitreal injection in his right eye.

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

"His vital parameters were found to be normal. He was clinically stable, and his general physical examination was normal," the hospital said to Al Jazeera.

He was discharged at around 2:30am on Wednesday, with instructions for further care and follow-up, it added.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the overnight hospital visit and his return to prison raised "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 party said, adding that the state bore full responsibility for his safety and wellbeing.

"His family, personal doctors and legal team must be given immediate and unrestricted access," it said.

PTI information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told Al Jazeera that Khan's family and personal doctors had not been informed about the hospital visit and that the party learned of it through 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 court hearing on Tuesday, Khan's lawyer Salman Safdar told the Islamabad High Court that the former prime minister had reported an improvement in his eyesight, but his blood pressure remained a concern.

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

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

In August, Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered that Khan be transferred to a private hospital of his choice in Islamabad. However, he was taken to PIMS and later returned to prison.

Khan, a former cricket star who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been imprisoned since August 2023 over multiple corruption charges, which he denies, describing them as politically motivated. The government has rejected the allegation.