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A close aide to jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Khan would not confront the military or army chief Asim Munir if freed, portraying Munir as someone able to extend a “healing hand” after a legal breakthrough this week, Reuters reported.
The comments came after Pakistan’s top court ordered Khan to be moved to a hospital for treatment.
They appeared to mark a significant shift in rhetoric by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, whose supporters have for years rallied against Munir, Reuters said.
PTI supporters see Munir as the figure behind Khan’s imprisonment in 2023 after the former cricket star fell out with Pakistan’s military leadership. Khan himself has described Munir as “mentally unstable.”
But in an interview Wednesday, Khan aide and PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari sent one of the clearest signals yet that the party was willing to reconcile with the military, potentially easing one of the tensest standoffs in recent Pakistani political history.
“If Imran Khan was released tomorrow, hypothetically, he wouldn’t do anything that would effectively damage the country,” Bukhari said, describing Khan as “magnanimous.”
“That doesn’t mean you go loggerheads with the establishment, with the military leader,” he said. “You control your own hurt. You curb your own pain. You swallow it for the betterment of your country.”
Reuters said doubts remained over whether Khan himself shared that approach.
The government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Bukhari’s remarks.
The military has previously said it does not interfere in politics, while the government says Khan’s cases are matters for the courts.
Pakistan’s government will challenge the Supreme Court’s order to move Khan to a private hospital for medical checks, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said late Tuesday.
The ruling “does not fall within the four corners of the law,” Tarar said in a video statement shared on X by state broadcaster Radio Pakistan.
The government is submitting a petition for review that will ask for Khan’s medical tests to be conducted at a government hospital rather than a private facility, as the court ordered.
“Until such time as evidence or material is available to show that government hospitals are unable to provide this type of treatment or cannot do so, such arrangements are normally not made,” Tarar said.
A three-judge bench decided Tuesday that Khan, 73, would be moved “within the next two days” to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
The court also said Khan would be allowed to meet his family once a week and speak to his sons by telephone twice a week.
Khan’s personal physician, Faisal Sultan, and his sister, medical doctor Uzma Khan, “shall be permitted to remain associated with the prisoner’s medical examination and treatment,” the order said.
The judges warned against public gatherings within the hospital grounds or the use of information about Khan’s health for political gain, cautioning that any breach could lead to the order being reversed.
The next hearing was set for Sept. 16.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced late last year to 17 years in prison after being charged in a series of cases.
He insists the charges are politically motivated.
The former prime minister received eye treatment at a hospital this year, with his family and lawyer saying at the time that he had lost most of the vision in his right eye.
Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being removed in a no-confidence vote during a political crisis marked by tensions between his government and Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.
His arrest triggered nationwide protests in May 2023.
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