For months, one of the biggest questions surrounding former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been whether he will be released from prison anytime soon. After rumours of his death at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail surfaced last year, concerns about his well-being have once again intensified. The question now being raised is whether the former cricketer-turned-politician is still alive.
An explosive but unverified claim by Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan has added to the uncertainty surrounding the jailed former prime minister. The Emmy-nominated journalist, who is now based in the US, claimed that “three senior military sources” had told him they believed Imran Khan may have died in prison.
The claim came at a particularly tense time. On Tuesday, Imran Khan’s family and members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said they had been denied access to him despite concerns about his health.
However, on Wednesday, Wajahat Saeed Khan appeared to qualify his earlier claim. In a YouTube video, he said the information provided by three senior officers based at Pakistan’s General Headquarters (GHQ) represented their personal assessment rather than confirmed intelligence. He clarified that none of the officers had personally seen evidence of Imran Khan’s death and described their statements as “fears” and “apprehensions”, rather than confirmed news.
The uncertainty over Khan’s condition has now become part of a wider political confrontation. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and PTI leader Sohail Afridi has claimed that more than “two million people were ready to take to the streets” and warned that anger among Pakistan’s youth could become difficult for the country’s military-backed political establishment to control.
The PTI has announced a long march towards Islamabad on September 27 and warned that protests could begin earlier if Imran Khan’s family members and doctors continue to be denied access to him.
Pressure is also mounting internationally. A bipartisan group of 13 US lawmakers has written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging him to raise the detention conditions of Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, directly with Islamabad. Their letter referred to concerns raised by a UN Special Rapporteur regarding Khan’s prolonged solitary confinement and allegations surrounding his health.
Together, these developments have created a highly volatile situation: an unverified claim about Khan’s death, demands from his family for access, international concerns over his detention and PTI leaders threatening to mobilise millions of supporters in Islamabad.
WHY IS IMRAN KHAN IN JAIL?
Imran Khan has been imprisoned since August 5, 2023, and is currently serving a 14-year sentence in the £190-million Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. His wife, Bushra Bibi, received a seven-year sentence in the same case in January 2025. Both have challenged their convictions.
Khan also faces pending cases related to the May 9, 2023 protests, during which PTI supporters attacked military installations, including garrisons and outposts, across Pakistan.
At the heart of the dispute is a long-running struggle between Pakistan’s elected civilian leadership and its military establishment, now headed by Field Marshal Asim Munir. Imran Khan has repeatedly accused Munir and the military establishment of unlawfully keeping him behind bars.
Khan and Munir have had a strained relationship for years. When Khan was prime minister and Munir headed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Khan reportedly wanted him removed from the position over what he described as interference involving his wife.
Khan, who has now spent more than three years in prison, was also rumoured to have died in custody in November last year. At the time, his family and party colleagues struggled to gain access to him and verify his condition.
Those rumours were eventually dispelled on December 2, when his sister Uzma Khanum met him at Adiala Jail and said he was physically well, although he was being kept in isolation.
The latest concerns over Khan’s well-being have therefore emerged against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter confrontation between the PTI and Pakistan’s military establishment.
'THREE MILITARY SOURCES' AND THE IMRAN DEATH CLAIM
The latest speculation about Imran Khan’s condition began with Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan.
In a YouTube video posted on August 10, the journalist said his reporting came from senior officers based at GHQ and represented the views of at least three such officers.
He stressed that the officers had not personally seen evidence of Khan’s death and that their information was therefore not confirmed.
Wajahat said the three senior officers had separately expressed the belief that Imran Khan was “no longer with us” and suggested this could explain why the military leadership was allegedly keeping him isolated from the rest of the country.
He repeatedly emphasised that the claim was unconfirmed and said the officers had heard information rather than witnessed anything themselves.
GHQ, or General Headquarters, in Rawalpindi serves as the command headquarters of the Pakistan Army and the centre of its military leadership.
While the journalist’s remarks gave renewed momentum to the death rumours, the PTI has simultaneously been engaged in a dispute over access to Khan.
The party has claimed that Khan’s family, lawyers, political colleagues and personal doctors have repeatedly faced difficulties in meeting him. His sisters have voiced concerns about his condition, while the PTI has called for an independent medical examination.
'MORE THAN TWO MILLION' READY: PTI LEADER, KP CM AFRIDI
According to BBC Urdu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and PTI leader Sohail Afridi publicly assured authorities that any meeting with Imran Khan would not be used to transmit political messages.
Afridi said the PTI was not making an unconstitutional demand and promised that nobody leaving a meeting with Khan would “talk politics”.
The phrase has been used by Pakistani military and government figures to accuse Imran’s sisters and PTI leaders of turning prison meetings into channels for communicating the former prime minister’s political messages.
With Khan’s family and PTI representatives still facing restrictions on meeting him, concerns about his condition have now become a rallying point for the party.
Afridi claimed that more than two million PTI supporters were prepared to take to the streets and warned that authorities could struggle to control the resulting mobilisation.
He said the party’s supporters were united and that there was significant anger among young Pakistanis.
The PTI has announced a September 27 march towards Islamabad, with its leadership and the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan opposition alliance backing the mobilisation.
Afridi has also sought to present the planned agitation as reflecting wider dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s political system rather than being solely about Khan’s imprisonment.
He said the September 27 mobilisation would demonstrate the number and determination of people willing to come out onto the streets, adding that Pakistan’s youth were frustrated with the system and institutions.
Until then, Afridi said, if PTI lawmakers continued to be denied access to Khan, the party would protest outside the Supreme Court, move towards Adiala Jail and organise demonstrations across Pakistan before the September 27 march, according to BBC Urdu.
US LAWMAKERS RAISE IMRAN KHAN TORTURE, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT CONCERNS
The controversy surrounding Khan’s detention has also reached Washington.
At least 13 bipartisan US lawmakers have urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise the detention of Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi with the Pakistani government.
Their letter referred to a December 2025 communication from UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards, who had expressed concerns about Khan’s detention conditions.
The UN expert said reports indicated that Khan had been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, at times for as much as 23 hours a day, and called on Pakistan to take immediate action regarding his treatment.
The US lawmakers also cited reports concerning serious damage to Khan’s right eye and a claim by his lawyer that he had lost 85 per cent of his vision.
The letter separately raised concerns about Bushra Bibi’s detention, including allegations involving her cell, access to food and drinking water, medical care and restrictions on family and legal visits.
The lawmakers asked the State Department to review the couple’s conditions and directly raise their continued detention and human rights situation with the Pakistani government, The Express Tribune reported.
WHY MUNIR-LED ESTABLISHMENT, IMRAN KHAN ARE AT LOGGERHEADS
Imran Khan’s imprisonment is closely tied to his long-running confrontation with Pakistan’s military establishment under Asim Munir.
Khan was once viewed as having benefited from the military establishment’s support, but his relationship with the military deteriorated sharply before and after his removal as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in April 2022.
Following his ouster, the conflict between Khan and the military became increasingly public.
In June 2023, Khan accused the military and intelligence agencies of attempting to dismantle the PTI and said he expected to be imprisoned. He specifically blamed Asim Munir for continuing what he described as a campaign against him.
The military, meanwhile, held PTI leaders responsible for the May 9 attacks on military installations and pledged to take action against those involved.
The subsequent crackdown dramatically altered Pakistan’s political landscape. PTI leaders and workers were arrested, while some were prosecuted in military courts.
A series of criminal cases were brought against Imran Khan, which the PTI has consistently described as politically motivated.
More than three years after Khan entered prison, the confrontation has reached another critical stage, with the PTI threatening mass protests and claiming that millions of people could take to the streets.
At present, there is no verified evidence that Imran Khan has died. The latest death claim remains unconfirmed, and the journalist who initially reported it has clarified that his sources were expressing fears rather than providing verified information.
Khan’s family continues to demand access to him, while US lawmakers have raised concerns about his detention conditions. Meanwhile, the PTI is preparing for a major mobilisation, with September 27 marked as the date for its planned long march to Islamabad.
