Pakistani authorities declared Imran Khan medically fit and sent him back to Adiala Jail on Friday, after an overnight examination at a state-run hospital ordered by the Supreme Court. The 73-year-old former prime minister had been admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences after a medical report said he was suffering from "level three plus" anxiety — a severe form in which worry overwhelms daily functioning, strains the body and disrupts clear thinking.
Khan, who leads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has spent the past three years in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, contesting more than 100 cases filed against him since he was voted out of office in an April 2022 no-confidence vote.
PTI supporters have long blamed Pakistan’s chief of defence forces Asim Munir for Khan’s imprisonment, seeing it as the outcome of his falling-out with the military leadership. Khan has called Munir “mentally unstable” in the past.
The land bribery case
Khan is currently serving a 14-year sentence handed down last year in a land corruption case tied to the Al-Qadir Trust, a charitable trust he and his third wife, Bushra Bibi, set up in 2018 while he was in office. It is the only conviction against him that hasn't been suspended or overturned.
Prosecutors allege the couple received land worth up to $25 million from a property dealer facing money-laundering charges in Britain, in exchange for Khan arranging the return of £190 million to the dealer — funds Britain had earlier repatriated to Pakistan as part of the money-laundering probe into that dealer. Khan denies any wrongdoing, and the case is now under appeal.
The Toshakhana case
{{/usCountry}}Prosecutors allege the couple received land worth up to $25 million from a property dealer facing money-laundering charges in Britain, in exchange for Khan arranging the return of £190 million to the dealer — funds Britain had earlier repatriated to Pakistan as part of the money-laundering probe into that dealer. Khan denies any wrongdoing, and the case is now under appeal.
The Toshakhana case
{{/usCountry}}A separate case concerns state gifts Khan received during his 2018–2022 premiership and allegedly sold in Dubai through aides. Pakistan's Toshakhana, or state treasury, is meant to hold such gifts, and officials say those sold were worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees. A former information minister's list of the items included perfumes, diamond jewellery, dinner sets and seven watches — six of them Rolexes, with the most valuable being a "Master Graff" limited edition valued at 85 million rupees (about $306,000).
Khan was first sentenced to three years in 2023; that was suspended. In January 2024, an anti-graft court handed him and his wife 14 years apiece in the same case. That sentence, too, is now suspended pending appeal.
Also read: Why Imran Khan was sent back to jail after check up at a 'different' hospital
The state secrets case
In 2024, Khan was convicted and sentenced to 10 years for making public a classified diplomatic cable. The conviction was later overturned.
The cable had been sent to Islamabad by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington in 2022, and its contents surfaced after the US outlet ‘The Intercept’ published a purported copy, prompting the then Shehbaz Sharif government to accuse Khan and his party of leaking it.
The document recorded a meeting between then Pakistani envoy Asad Majeed Khan and US State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu.
Khan has long maintained the cable proves a US-backed conspiracy, involving Pakistan's military establishment, to oust him after he visited Moscow just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both Washington and the Pakistani military have rejected the allegation.
His conviction in the case was delivered just ahead of Pakistan's February 2024 election.
The unlawful marriage case
Days before the 2024 election, a trial court sentenced Khan and Bushra Bibi to seven years each, ruling that their 2018 marriage had violated Islamic law because the couple married before Bibi had completed her mandated "Iddat" waiting period following her divorce from her previous husband. The two had signed their "nikkah" in a secret ceremony in January 2018. A court acquitted them of the charges in July 2024.
Dawn reported that Khan called the case politically motivated, instituted to damage his dignity and reputation. Bushra Bibi has said her ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Manika, divorced her in April 2017 but did not sign the divorce deed until that November.
Also read: Will Imran Khan confront Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir if released? Close aide answers
The May 2023 violence case
Khan also faces terrorism charges over the unrest that followed his May 2023 arrest in the land bribery case, which came a day after the military had publicly rebuked him for repeatedly accusing a senior officer of plotting his assassination.
The government says his supporters attacked state buildings, damaged vehicles and ransacked military installations — unrest serious enough to raise concerns about stability in the nuclear-armed country. Hundreds of PTI supporters were tried, and many convicted, by military courts. Khan's own trial in the case is still under way.
Where things stand
PTI insists the cases against Khan are politically engineered by the military establishment and the Sharif government, a charge authorities reject.
Concerns over his health have driven the latest legal moves. His lawyers say he has lost significant vision in one eye while in custody, though a medical board later reported the vision had improved. His sons have sought visas to visit him, citing fears for his wellbeing, and his family and party say they have repeatedly been denied access to him.
The Pakistan Supreme Court ordered authorities on Tuesday to move Khan from jail for a medical examination but the visit ended sooner than his supporters had expected.
A shift in tone toward the military
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari — a close Khan aide speaking from self-imposed exile in Dubai — said Khan was "magnanimous” and would not confront the military or Munir if released.
“If Imran Khan was released tomorrow, hypothetically, he wouldn't do anything that would effectively damage the country,” he said, indicating that PTI was willing to reconcile with the military, though it remains unclear whether Khan shares that position.
Analysts have cautioned against reading the overture as a settled party line.
Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Reuters it was unclear whether “PTI’s leadership have the capacity, so long as Khan is in jail, to present a common front in any potential engagement or negotiation with the state”.
What next
PTI is likely to contest how the hospital visit was handled. Khan's appeal against the Al-Qadir Trust conviction — his one standing sentence — continues to work through the courts. Whether he is granted more access to family and legal counsel, and how the terrorism case tied to the May 2023 unrest proceeds, remain open questions.