Pakistan’s military has rejected reports that former prime minister Imran Khan has died in custody, after journalist Wajahat Saeed Khan initially claimed that the jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
leader was dead before later clarifying that his sources had not confirmed the report.
Wajahat Saeed Khan had shared a two-part series titled ‘Is Khan still with us’ and ‘What happens after Khan’ on August 11. He initially claimed that an unnamed source at the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army had told him that Khan had died in custody.
Journalist Walks Back Death Claim
The journalist later issued a lengthy clarification, saying his sources had never actually confirmed Imran Khan’s death.
In a subsequent video, he said three senior Pakistan Army officers had expressed serious concern about Khan’s fate but had not provided evidence that he was dead.
“Let’s be very clear. They did not confirm that Imran Khan is dead,” he said.
According to Khan, the officers had described a “profound paralysing fear that the worst may have happened or is likely to happen”.
He said his reporting was intended to push authorities to provide evidence that Khan was alive rather than make a definitive declaration about his death.
“What did we achieve today?” he asked. “I have stirred the authorities to provide proof of life.”
Secrecy Around Imprisonment
Wajahat Saeed Khan said his reporting was based on conversations with senior officials in the Army’s General Staff, Military Intelligence and C4I directorates, as well as a junior commissioned officer.
He said the officers were based at the Army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
According to his account, the information pointed towards an extraordinary level of secrecy surrounding Khan’s imprisonment and concern among some military personnel about what might have happened to him.
He alleged that the military was “uncharacteristically, terrifyingly and chillingly silent and tight-lipped” and claimed that a small group of intelligence operatives reporting directly to the army chief was handling the operation.
Security Operation At Adiala Jail
The journalist also described what he said was an increasingly militarised security operation at Adiala jail, where Khan is imprisoned.
He alleged that a military intelligence unit had taken a significant role in the prison’s operations and that sophisticated surveillance equipment had been deployed around the facility.
He also claimed that authorities were preparing for the possibility of Khan’s supporters storming the prison.
However, Saeed Khan repeatedly stressed that the information provided by his sources was not authenticated evidence of Khan’s death.
“They were making assessments based on personal fear and the ongoing chatter in their professional circles,” he said, adding that it was “not actual evidence-based, quantified, authenticated or documented facts but fear and speculation”.
ISPR Rejects Report
The clarification came after Pakistan’s military public-relations wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR), rejected Saeed Khan’s reporting as false.
The journalist welcomed the response, saying it represented an important development after what he described as months of silence about Khan’s condition.
“I am glad that the ISPR has responded, fake or whatever, because that means Imran is alive,” he said.
He also said members of Bushra Bibi’s family had reported seeing Khan on CCTV during a prison visit.
“They confirmed they saw him walking on his own two feet on CCTV,” he said.
He added that the family had reported serious health problems, including vision loss and severe blood-pressure spikes, and that Khan had recently been taken to a hospital. These issues had also been reported earlier in local and international media.
Khan Remains In Jail
The 72-year-old Imran Khan was elected Pakistan’s prime minister in 2018 and was removed from office in April 2022 following a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
He was first arrested on May 9, 2023, triggering mass protests, and was arrested again on August 5, 2023. He has remained in jail since then.
Khan was acquitted in January 2025 in cases involving official secrets and his marriage to Bushra Bibi Khan. However, he remains imprisoned while serving a 14-year sentence in a corruption case. Bushra Bibi was sentenced to seven years in the same case.
In December 2025, Khan and Bushra Bibi received additional 17-year prison sentences in a separate case involving state gifts.
Amnesty International said on August 4 that Pakistani authorities had denied Khan a fair trial, subjected him to prolonged solitary confinement and restricted his access to medical care and visits. It also said he had not been allowed to meet his family for more than eight months and that his vision had reportedly deteriorated significantly.
