With the Supreme Court ordering Imran Khan’s transfer to hospital and the government seeking to modify that order, it is worth setting out what actually keeps him in prison (Geo News).
The headline fact is easily lost: all but one of his convictions have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending. He says more than 100 cases have been launched against him since he lost power in a no-confidence vote in 2022.
The conviction that stands is the Al-Qadir Trust case. He was sentenced to 14 years in 2025 in a land corruption case in which prosecutors said he and his wife received land as a bribe through the Al-Qadir Trust, a charitable trust set up by Bushra Bibi.
The allegation is that the couple received land worth up to Rs7 billion — about $25 million — from a property developer charged in Britain with money laundering, in exchange for a favour: returning £190 million to that developer after the sum had been repatriated to Pakistan by British authorities in the money laundering investigation.
He denies wrongdoing, and the PTI describes the convictions as politically motivated.
Other cases have included allegations over state gifts and an accusation of an unlawful marriage.
His family and party say they fear for his health in prison and that they have been denied access to him. His lawyer told a court earlier this year that Khan had lost significant vision in his right eye while incarcerated — the condition, central retinal vein occlusion, that featured in this week’s Supreme Court proceedings.
Khan, 73, has been in prison since August 2023.
