For months now, the most important question around former Pakistan PM Imran Khan has been whether he could walk out of jail anytime soon. After rumours about his death in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail surfaced months ago, questions over Imran Khan’s well-being have returned again. Is the cricketer-turner politician even alive?

An explosive but unverified claim by Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan added to anxieties surrounding the jailed former PM’s well-being. The Emmy-nominated journalist, now based in the US, has claimed that “three senior military sources told him they believed Imran might have died in jail”.

Wajahat’s claim landed at a particularly volatile moment. On Tuesday, Imran Khan’s family and colleagues of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party complained of being denied access to the former PM amid concerns over his health.

Days later on Wednesday, Wajahat Saeed Khan walked back on his claim. In a video on YouTube, he said that the information from three senior GHQ-based officers was their personal assessment rather than confirmed intelligence. He clarified that none of the officers had seen any evidence of Imran Khan’s death themselves and described what they had conveyed as “fears” and “apprehensions”, not news.

The anxiety around Khan’s well-being is now feeding into a planned showdown. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM and PTI leader Sohail Afridi has claimed that more than “two million people were ready to take to the streets” and warned that “the anger among Pakistan’s youth could become impossible to contain” by Pakistan’s hybrid regime that has CDF Field Marshal Asim Munir at its helm. The PTI has announced a long march towards Islamabad on September 27, while threatening protests even before that if Imran’s family and doctors continue to be denied access.

The pressure on the Pakistani regime is also coming from outside the nation. A bipartisan group of 13 US lawmakers has written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking him to raise Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s detention conditions directly with Islamabad. Their letter cites a UN Special Rapporteur’s concerns over Imran’s prolonged solitary confinement and allegations concerning his health.

Together, the developments have created a combustible mix. There’s an unverified death claim. A family is demanding access. There’s international concern over Khan’s detention conditions and the PTI leadership threatening to bring two-million people onto Islamabad’s streets.

WHY IS IMRAN KHAN IN JAIL?

Former PM 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, was sentenced to seven years in the same case in January 2025. Both challenge their convictions. Imran also faces pending trials linked to the May 9, 2023 protests where PTI supporters attacked Army instalments (garrisons, outposts) across Pakistan.

Behind this battle is a political confrontation that has defined Pakistan since the 1960s. It’s the tussle between the “elected” civilian leadership and the military establishment, now headed by Field Marshal Asim Munir. Imran has repeatedly blamed Munir and the establishment for his “unlawful” incarceration.

Munir, arguably Pakistan’s most powerful man, has had bad blood with Khan going back years. When Khan was prime minister and Munir headed the ISI, Khan wanted Munir removed from the post over the latter’s “interference” in the former’s wife’s affairs. The same Munir is now on the verge of staging a coup in Pakistan, as experts are to be believed.

Khan, now captive for more than three years, was also rumoured to have died in jail in November last year, as his family and party colleagues struggled to get access to him and verify his well-being. Those rumours were put to rest weeks later, on December 2, when his sister Uzma Khanum met Khan at Adiala Jail and said he was physically well, though being kept in isolation.

It is against this backdrop that questions over Imran Khan’s well-being appear to be taking shape from a major confrontation between the PTI and Pakistan’s military establishment.

‘THREE MILITARY SOURCES’ AND THE IMRAN DEATH CLAIM

The latest wave of speculation over Imran Khan’s well-being was triggered by Pakistani journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan.

According to a YouTube video posted on his channel on August 10, Wajahat Saeed Khan said, “This is our reporting. We have done this reporting from GHQ, from senior officers based at GHQ. This is the perspective of at least three officers. It is a personal perspective… They haven’t seen anything with their own eyes, so it is not confirmed. But when you are sitting inside GHQ, you are not sitting in Quetta Cantonment, at some Frontier Corps check post, or somewhere in Waziristan. You are sitting inside Rawalpindi, inside the belly of the beast. You are sitting at the headquarters”.

“Three senior GHQ-based officers have expressed this in different ways that Imran Khan is no longer with us, and that is the reason why the Pakistan Army and the Army Chief are keeping him away from the rest of the country… This is serious. I hope it is not true. It is not confirmed yet…. Three senior military sources fear that Imran Khan is no longer with us. They haven’t seen anything with their own eyes, but they have heard things with their ears,” said Wajahat Saeed Khan.

PTI said that Imran’s family, lawyers, party colleagues and personal doctors have repeatedly struggled to meet him. His sisters have expressed concern over his condition, while the party has demanded an independent medical assessment.

‘MORE THAN TWO MILLION’ READY: PTI LEADER, KP CM AFRIDI

The BBC Urdu reported that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) CM and PTI leader Sohail Afridi publicly offered an assurance that a meeting would not be used to transmit political messages. Afridi added that the PTI was not making an unconstitutional demand and guaranteed that nobody would come out of a meeting with Imran and “talk politics”.

The phrase “talk politics”has been used by military and government figures to accuse Imran’s sisters and PTI leaders of turning jail meetings into a conduit for the former PM’s political messaging.

Even as the PTI leadership and Khan’s family were not allowed to meet him, the concern over his well-being has now been turned into a mobilisation call. Afridi has claimed that PTI has more than two million people ready to come out and warned that the authorities could struggle to contain them.

The PTI has announced a march to Islamabad on September 27, adding that its leadership and the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan opposition alliance are backing the mobilisation. Afridi has also sought to portray the agitation as an expression of anger extending beyond Imran’s imprisonment.

“On September 27, Pakistan will see how many people come out and with what passion and determination. Pakistan’s youth are fed up. They are angry with the system and with all the institutions… Pakistan is in a terrible state, but their priority is to keep Imran Khan in isolation,” he added.

Until then, Afridi said, if access to Imran Khan was not provided to PTI MPs, they would protest outside the Supreme Court, then move towards Adiala Jail, followed by protests across Pakistan before the September 27 long march, reported the BBC Urdu.

US LAWMAKERS RAISE IMRAN KHAN TORTURE, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT CONCERNS

The controversy in Pakistan has now reached Washington. At least 13 bipartisan US lawmakers have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take up the detention of Imran and Bushra with Pakistan. The letter refers to a December 2025 communication from UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards, which raised concerns over Imran’s detention conditions.

The UN expert said reports indicated that Imran had been held in prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for up to 23 hours a day, and called on Pakistan to take immediate steps concerning his detention conditions.

The congressional letter also cited reports of severe damage to Imran’s right eye and his lawyer’s claim that he had lost 85% of his vision. It separately raised concerns over Bushra Bibi’s detention, including allegations about her cell, access to food and drinking water, medical treatment and restrictions on family and legal visits.

The US lawmakers asked the State Department to review the couple’s conditions and “address their continued detention and human rights directly with the Government of Pakistan”, reported Karachi-based newspaper, The Express Tribune.

WHY MUNIR-LED ESTABLISHMENT, IMRAN KHAN ARE AT LOGGERHEADS?

Imran Khan’s incarceration cannot be separated from his extraordinary rupture with Pakistan’s military establishment led by Munir.

Once seen as benefiting from establishment support, Imran increasingly clashed with the military before and after his removal as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in April 2022. After his ouster, the confrontation became open.

In June 2023, Imran said that the military and its intelligence apparatus were trying to destroy PTI and said he expected to be jailed. He specifically accused Asim Munir of continuing a campaign against him. The military, meanwhile, blamed PTI leaders for the May 9 attacks on military installations and vowed action against those responsible.

The crackdown following May 9 reshaped Pakistani politics. PTI leaders and workers were arrested, some were even tried in military courts. A series of criminal cases were slapped on Imran Khan, which the PTI insisted are politically motivated. Three years after Imran entered prison, the confrontation has reached another dangerous point when the PTI is warning the establishment of protests with 20 million people.

Right now, there is no verified evidence that Imran Khan is dead. There’s a death claim that the journalist has since walked back on. His family is demanding access to him. Concerns have been raised by US lawmakers over his detention. And there’s a threat of mass mobilisation that could turn into a bigger headache for Pakistan’s establishment.

And on September 27, the PTI hopes to turn that into a show of strength on Pakistan’s streets.