Pakistan's Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, has dismissed speculation regarding any behind-the-scenes agreement between the government and imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan to secure his release. The ministerial denial comes just a day after two of Khan's three imprisoned sisters were freed from detention following their involvement in a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf protest march.
Imran Khan, who led Pakistan as prime minister from August 2018 until April 2022, has remained incarcerated in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail since his arrest in August 2023 over a corruption case involving state gifts. Since then, he has faced over a hundred legal battles, accumulating multiple sentences including a 14-year term handed down in a land corruption case in January 2025.
Addressing reporters at the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency in Lahore, Naqvi rejected talk of negotiations between the ruling administration and the opposition party founder. He stated that rumours make for temporary stories and maintained that any potential relief for Khan and his family would depend strictly on their legal rights and decisions made by the courts.
The speculation intensified after Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were released from Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail following the formal withdrawal of their extended detention orders. Initially detained in September under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance ahead of a planned demonstration in Islamabad, the pair spent over seven weeks behind bars after the Punjab government prolonged their initial custody period. Their third sister, Aleema Khan, remains imprisoned.
Alongside the release of his sisters, public focus has turned toward Khan's medical condition. The former prime minister was temporarily transferred from prison to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad for an eye procedure to treat central retinal vein occlusion, before being discharged and returned to jail.
Speculation regarding a possible compromise between the incarcerated leader and the civil-military leadership has surfaced periodically. While party representatives have previously hinted at a willingness to set aside past tensions, interior officials continue to insist that executive authorities will not intervene, leaving any resolution entirely in the hands of the judiciary.