In Pakistan, a Man's Eyesight Is the Price of Dissent

A 73-year-old man is losing his eyesight in a cell, and the state that put him there calls it medicine. Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, was transferred to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for a few hours before being driven back to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi. "Medically fit," the information minister declared, as if a team of qualified doctors could erase the reality of Khan's condition.

For months, his supporters gathered outside Adiala jail, demanding he be allowed to see a doctor. It took a Supreme Court order to get him examined by a specialist. Not released, not exonerated. Just examined. The state's obligation to a prisoner does not depend on their innocence. You lock someone up, you keep them alive. You don't get to take a man's freedom and then take his eyes and call it procedure.

Khan was prime minister from 2018 to 2022, removed by a vote of no confidence. He blamed the United States and then General Bajwa, the army chief at the time. After his arrest in May 2023, Khan accused the current army chief, Asim Munir, of carrying a personal grudge and directing the crackdown on his party.

The military has denied this, as it always does. In Pakistan, the military denies involvement like the weather denies the rain. It's falling on everyone, but the sky says it's not its fault. Don't trust the coffee in any of this. The punishment has moved from political to physical. When you take their eyesight, you've crossed into something darker. You've decided the person is not just a political problem but a body to be broken.

The record is not complicated: a 73-year-old man in state custody lost his vision. The state said he was fine. The court said treat him. The state said it did. The man is still in a cell. One hundred cases, months of solitary confinement, 15% eyesight, a few hours at a hospital. Medically fit. That's what a state says when it's decided someone should disappear slowly. The courts can order treatment, but they can't order honesty.