Is Imran Khan dead? A Pakistani journalist retracts his remark, and the PTI says two million men are prepared

The most significant topic surrounding former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for months has been whether or not he will be released from prison anytime soon. Imran Khan’s well-being has come under scrutiny once more after reports of his death in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail circulated months ago. Is the politician who was once a cricket player still alive?

Concerns about the imprisoned former prime minister’s health were heightened by an explosive but unsubstantiated assertion made by Pakistani writer Wajahat Saeed Khan. “Three senior military sources told him they believed Imran might have died in jail,” according to the Emmy-nominated journalist who is currently based in the United States.

The timing of Wajahat’s assertion was especially unstable. Due to worries about his health, Imran Khan’s family and members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party protested on Tuesday that they were not allowed to see the former prime minister.

On Wednesday, a few days later, Wajahat Saeed Khan retracted his assertion. He said in a YouTube video that the material provided by three senior GHQ-based officials was their subjective opinion rather than verified intelligence. He explained that none of the cops had personally witnessed any proof of Imran Khan’s demise and characterised what they had expressed as “fears” and “apprehensions” rather than news.

A planned confrontation is now being fuelled by concern for Khan’s welfare. More than “two million people were ready to take to the streets,” according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and PTI leader Sohail Afridi, who also cautioned that Pakistan’s hybrid government, led by CDF Field Marshal Asim Munir, may find it tough to control “the anger among Pakistan’s youth.” If Imran’s family and medical professionals are still refused entry, the PTI has threatened to stage protests even before its long march toward Islamabad on September 27.

The Pakistani government is also under pressure from outside the country. Thirteen US legislators from both parties have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio requesting that he bring up the detention conditions of Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi with Islamabad. The UN Special Rapporteur’s worries about Imran’s extended solitary detention and claims about his health are mentioned in their letter.

The developments have combined to form a volatile mixture. An unconfirmed death claim has been made. Access is being demanded by a family. The conditions of Khan’s confinement and the PTI leadership’s threat to force two million people onto the streets of Islamabad are causing worry on a global scale.

Imran Khan, the former prime minister, has been incarcerated since August 5, 2023, and is presently serving a 14-year sentence related to the ¥£190 million Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. In January 2025, Bushra Bibi, his wife, received a seven-year term in the same case. They both contest their beliefs. Imran is also awaiting trial in connection with the May 9, 2023 protests in which members of the PTI attacked Army installations (garrisons, outposts) throughout Pakistan.