Islamabad high court bars solitary confinement for Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi, orders family access

New Delhi: The Islamabad high court has directed authorities at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail to ensure that the former Pakistan prime minister, Imran Khan, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, are not kept in solitary confinement. The court also ordered jail officials to facilitate family access and telephone conversations between Khan and his sons, while directing the prison superintendent to submit a compliance report within 15 days.

The directions concern the conditions of their detention. The court did not order the release of either Khan or Bushra Bibi, overturn their convictions or suspend their prison sentences.

Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro issued the directions while disposing of petitions filed by Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, and Bushra Bibi’s daughter, Mubashra Khawar Maneka, challenging their alleged solitary confinement at Adiala jail. The court held that both petitions were maintainable.

What the court ordered

The court directed the Adiala jail superintendent to ensure that neither Khan nor Bushra Bibi is kept in solitary confinement and to facilitate a meeting between the couple in accordance with prison rules. Khan’s family members must also be allowed to meet him as permitted under jail rules. Prison authorities have been directed to arrange telephone conversations between Khan and his sons.

According to Pakistani media reports on the written order, the court said the telephone facility could be withdrawn if recordings of the conversations were used for political purposes.

The court also ordered that Khan be provided newspapers and books daily and receive medical facilities in accordance with applicable prison rules. The jail superintendent has been directed to implement the order and submit a compliance report within 15 days.

Pakistani media reported that the court distinguished between separation required for prison security and complete social isolation. Security-related separation may be permissible under prison rules, but it cannot be used to impose unnecessary social isolation on a prisoner.

Why the case reached court

The petitions arose from allegations by Khan’s family and lawyers that he and Bushra Bibi were being subjected to prolonged isolation and restrictions on meetings and other facilities.

Aleema Khan approached the high court concerning her brother, while Mubashra Khawar Maneka filed a separate petition over her mother’s detention conditions. Barrister Salman Safdar represented the petitioners. Safdar argued during earlier hearings that neither Khan nor Bushra Bibi had been sentenced by any court to solitary confinement. Aleema Khan’s petition alleged that Khan was spending as many as 22 hours a day in isolation.

The government and Adiala jail administration disputed those claims. The Islamabad advocate general, Naveed Hayat Malik, argued that Khan was housed separately because of security concerns linked to his political profile.

The Adiala jail superintendent, Sajid Baig, told the court that Khan was not locked inside a single cell throughout the day and could move within a compound comprising seven cells.

The jail administration also denied that Bushra Bibi was being held in solitary confinement, saying she had been accommodated separately for security reasons and had access to a room, courtyard and kitchen.

Khan, Bushra remain in custody

Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 and remains in Adiala jail. An accountability court sentenced him to 14 years in prison in January 2025 in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. Bushra Bibi was sentenced to seven years in the same case. Both challenged the convictions before the Islamabad high court.

In December 2025, a special court sentenced Khan and Bushra Bibi to another 17 years each in the Toshakhana-2 case concerning a Bulgari jewellery set received as an official gift during Khan’s tenure as prime minister. Those convictions have also been challenged.

The latest Islamabad high court ruling does not alter any of these sentences. Khan has separately been involved in proceedings concerning his health. On August 18, Pakistan’s supreme court directed authorities to shift him to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for a medical examination.

Khan was instead taken on the night of August 20-21 to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences before being returned to Adiala jail. The Pakistan information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said doctors from Shifa International Hospital were also present and that PIMS was used because of security concerns.

Khan’s sister, Dr Uzma Khan, subsequently filed a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with the supreme court’s direction. The matter is scheduled to be heard on September 16.

Bushra Bibi was first jailed on January 31, 2024. She was released on bail on October 24 that year, but returned to custody on January 17, 2025, following her conviction in the Al-Qadir Trust case. She remains detained at Adiala jail.

The Adiala jail superintendent must now implement the high court’s directions on solitary confinement, meetings, telephone access, reading material and medical facilities and submit a compliance report within 15 days.