It is heartening to note that the government has ultimately acted on the advice of jail doctors to take the incarcerated leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, to a noted tertiary care facility, Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS), where he, according to the federal information minister, Ata Tarar, underwent a nearly half an hour medical procedure relating to eyes.
Federal information minister has reportedly said that it was the medical experts’ opinion to take Imran to Pims for a medical procedure. “He is absolutely fine, and he was also perfectly fine when this medical procedure was being performed,” according to the minister.
In my view, the foregoing clearly suggests that PTI was making all the right noises about the eye condition of its founder. Citing medical experts, the party had said that if not treated promptly and properly, CRVO could cause permanent damage to his eyesight.
Now the federal government claims that Imran Khan “is absolutely fine”. But it is not enough; the government is in fact required to urgently share medical reports of the party founder at least with his family members in order to ease their legitimate concerns about his health as one of his sisters has claimed that he remained at PIMS for not one hour but three hours “and then transferred back to Adiala Jail in an atmosphere of extreme mystery and terrifying silence”.
Last but not least, the government seems to be fully aware of the fact that concealing information often causes more harm, stress and conflict than revealing or sharing it.
Mahanoor Ahmed Khan (Islamabad)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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