Afridi slams ‘secret’ transfer of IK from Adiala Jail to hospital

RAWALPINDI: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Thursday termed the transfer of incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan from Adiala Jail to a hospital for eye treatment as “health terrorism,” questioning why Khan’s family and personal physicians were kept in the dark.

Talking to reporters at Factory Naka near Adiala Jail, he said that Khan was shifted from jail to a hospital on January 24 (Saturday), raising serious questions about his health and the circumstances surrounding his medical treatment.

He said the first and most fundamental concern was how Imran Khan’s health deteriorated to the extent that he had to be shifted from jail to a hospital. “If it is assumed he was unwell, it means Khan was already unwell, which was not disclosed earlier.”

“Despite the seriousness, neither his family members were allowed to meet him, nor personal physicians informed or taken into confidence at the time of transferring him to the hospital,” he said.

Afridi, accompanied by PTI Secretary General Salaman Akram Raja, provincial minister Meena Khan Afridi, Shafiullah Jan Special Assistant to Chief Minister KP for Information and Public Relations, MNA Khalid Khattak, other party members, attempted for the 12th time to meet Khan.

READ MORE: Imran Khan’s eye condition

However, police stopped them at Factory Naka near the prison and denied them to meet with Khan. Afridi, PTI leaders and workers staged sit-in at Factory Naka.

PTI secretary general Raja told the media that in compliance with Islamabad High Court (IHC) directives, he prepared a list of PTI leaders to meet Khan and formally submit it to jail authorities, and all individuals named on the list were always present at the site.

Raja said the party leadership was deeply concerned and outraged, alleging that basic principles of humanity had been violated. He revealed that on Saturday night [January 24] the party founder was secretly transferred from jail to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) without informing his family.

“This clearly indicates that there was a serious medical situation in which treatment inside the jail was not possible,” he said. “However, it was the responsibility of jail authorities to inform the family so that personal doctors and family members could be present.”

He strongly objected to what he described as the covert transfer of the founder to a hospital at night and the administration of medical injections without the consent or knowledge of the family. Raja claimed that credible information confirmed that injections had been administered.

Calling the episode “a fraud” and “a barbaric act,” Raja declared that the party delegation would not leave without meeting the founder, asserting that the meeting was a fundamental human right.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026