Pakistan's courts have issued orders on Imran Khan's behalf before. They have mandated medical access, questioned his conditions, and heard petition after petition since he was imprisoned in August 2023. What they had not done, until now, was order him physically removed from prison — a step the government resisted and the Supreme Court ultimately imposed.
On August 18, 2026, a three-member bench of Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered Khan, 73, transferred from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad within 48 hours, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. He was moved shortly after midnight on Friday, confirmed by leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Arif Alvi and Zulfikar Bukhari, the New York Times reported.
Khan, a former international cricket captain who served as prime minister from 2018 until he was ousted in 2022, has been convicted on multiple corruption charges. He and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were both sentenced to 17 years late last year. He also faces charges in more than 100 cases, including leaking state secrets and selling state gifts. The BBC notes that Khan and his PTI party have consistently maintained the prosecutions are politically motivated.
The immediate trigger for the transfer order was Khan's health. He has been diagnosed with right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), a condition affecting blood flow in the eye, and had previously been taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on multiple occasions for treatment, according to the Indian Express.
The court ordered a medical board to oversee his care at Shifa International. It is to include a cardiologist, a general medicine specialist, an eye specialist, Khan's personal physician Dr. Faisal Sultan, and his sister Dr. Uzma Khan, Al Jazeera reported. The bench also ordered weekly family visitation rights and authorised Khan to speak with his sons, who live abroad. His relatives are to bear the cost of his treatment, the New York Times reported.
The government did not accept the ruling quietly. On August 19, the office of the chief commissioner in Islamabad filed a review petition challenging the order, Al Jazeera reported. The petition argued the court had bypassed proper legal procedure by ordering the transfer without first hearing from prison authorities. It also warned that other prisoners could seek similar treatment on the same basis. The Supreme Court declined to act on the petition.
The transfer is set to last at minimum until September 16, when the court is scheduled to resume hearings on a cluster of related petitions covering Khan's medical treatment, prison conditions, family access, and a pending challenge to his sentence, the New York Times reported. Whether he will remain in hospital beyond that date, and whether the government will mount further legal challenges, is not yet known.
The significance of the ruling lies less in its immediate logistics than in what it represents. Previous court interventions on Khan's behalf had stopped short of overriding the state's physical custody of him. This one did not. The government's attempt to reverse it failed within a day. For a case that has run in parallel with a broader contest over institutional authority in Pakistan, the court's willingness to act — and to hold its ground — carries weight that extends beyond one man's medical care.
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