Supporters of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party hold pictures of the jailed former prime minister during a protest demanding his release in Quetta on August 5, 2026 [Fayyaz Ahmad/EPA] By Abid Hussain Published On 18 Aug 202618 Aug 2026 Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the transfer of Imran Khan, former prime minister and founder of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, from Rawalpindi’s Adiala prison to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital within two days, granting a demand his party had been making for months.
Uzair Bhandari, one of Khan’s lawyers, told Al Jazeera the three-member bench on Tuesday also ordered a medical board be formed to oversee Khan’s treatment, including the former prime minister’s sister Dr Uzma Khan and his personal physician Dr Faisal Sultan.
“The court also directed that Khan’s family be allowed to meet him at the hospital and that he be permitted to speak with his sons, who live abroad,” Bhandari said.
The next hearing has been scheduled for September 16, and Khan should remain hospitalised until at least then as per the order, according to the lawyer.
This would be the longest period Khan would be physically outside jail premises since he was imprisoned in August 2023 and convicted in several corruption-related cases that he and his party insist are politically motivated.
The order followed a report that Adiala jail’s superintendent submitted to the court on Monday, detailing a cardiac board’s August 10 review of Khan, 73, which recorded fluctuating blood pressure and anxiety linked to what it said was restricted contact with his family.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the court pressed Pakistan’s advocate general over gaps in the report, saying Khan’s “pulse and heart condition were not normal” and his vital organs “had started being affected”.
Advertisement Courts had twice declined similar transfer requests since February, including an Islamabad High Court ruling that ordered a medical board’s assessment instead.
Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI leader, told Al Jazeera the ruling reinforced the party’s longstanding position that Khan needed independent, specialised treatment outside Adiala jail.
“Medical care provided within the prison system is no substitute for a thorough evaluation by independent specialists of his choosing,” Bukhari said, adding that the PTI had consistently called for Khan’s transfer to Shifa International Hospital and access to his own doctors.
Government officials have insisted any transfer requires judicial authorisation rather than executive discretion.
Rana Sanaullah, adviser to Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif, told the Senate on Monday that Khan was receiving “the best available medical treatment” and his condition did not support the PTI’s concerns.
The order was issued amid a wider standoff over access to Khan, which the PTI has increasingly framed as the condition for reviving talks with the government.
The government said it has renewed its efforts to engage in dialogue with little success while the PTI leadership has announced a countrywide protest on September 27.
PTI supporters protest for Khan’s release in Lahore on August 5, 2026 [Arif Ali/AFP] PTI’s next move The PTI has urged its supporters to not gather outside Shifa International Hospital, calling in a statement for a “peaceful environment” around the facility during Khan’s treatment.
Aleema Khan, one of Khan’s sisters, spoke to reporters outside the court on Tuesday, where she said the family had assured the bench it would not discuss the case’s substance publicly, a condition attached to the hearing.
“There came a time when we had become completely hopeless,” she said, “But in that very state, God opened a path of justice for us.” After Tuesday’s court order, PTI spokesman Sheikh Waqas Akram told Al Jazeera that preparations for the September 27 march “will go on regardless of whatever else happens”.
“He [Khan] has instructed us to strive for justice and rule of law.
That is our bigger goal, and we will continue our preparations for that,” Akram said.
He said the party will reconsider its future actions only if the government complies with court orders and opens talks that acknowledge what the PTI calls a “theft of mandate” in the 2024 elections.
“If they don’t do that, we have no choice but to go on with our march,” he said.
In a post on X, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Chief Minister and senior PTI leader Sohail Afridi called the court’s order “a justice-based, appreciable decision” and said the PTI “will not do any politics” over Khan’s health.
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Some analysts saw signs of reconciliation between the government and Pakistan’s main opposition party.
“In the past, there have been plenty of rumours about a deal that went nowhere, but this time, there are a few signs of a possible thaw with PTI,” said Benazir Shah, a Lahore-based political analyst.
“With security challenges in Balochistan piling up and protests in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, delaying a confrontation with PTI in the capital could certainly help buy the government some breathing room,” she told Al Jazeera.
The southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest by area and most sparsely populated, saw hundreds of attacks this year.
Pakistan-administered Kashmir has also seen months of unrest since authorities banned a civil society coalition demanding electoral and economic reforms.
Violence surrounding last month’s regional elections killed dozens of people.
But Shah cautioned against reading too much into the signs of a thaw, adding that any reconciliation would hinge on Khan himself.
“He remains the central figure in PTI, and any [government] deal with the party would ultimately require his approval,” she said.
“If he is moved to hospital and allowed greater access to other party leaders, only then would it be clear whether he is prepared to engage with the existing political and military set-up.”
