Claim: Imran Khan’s sister Noreen Niazi issued an update on her brother’s health in a recent post on X saying that his eye had improved
Fact: The post was made by a fake account. Noreen Niazi did not share any such update on the condition of her brother’s eye.
On 16 February a verified X account by the name of Noreen Khanum posted an update claiming that the condition of Imran Khan’s eye had improved after an initial visit to PIMS hospital a day before.
The post, which is originally written in Urdu, states:
[Translation: “A medical examination of Imran Khan was conducted on Sunday afternoon at Adiala Jail where an ambulance with an OCT scan, slit lamp machine and other complete facilities reached the site.
Dr Arif (PIMS) and Dr Nadeem Qureshi (Al Shifa) conducted a physical examination inside the prison. After this, they informed the senior doctors about their report, which included Dr Aasim Yusuf and Dr Mirza who participated through video conference. Barrister Gohar is also aware of this progress.
According to the initial report!
- Swelling has decreased
- Vision is improving
- No major complications have emerged so far
However, the doctors of Shifa hospital are still cautious. According to them, despite being told earlier that Imran Khan would be shifted to Shifa, he was not brought there. The retina specialists of Shifa, including Dr Amir Awan, were on standby till late tonight, but Imran Khan was not shifted.
One dose of Eylea injection has been administered, whereas the second dose will be given on 25 February. According to experts, including Dr Khurram Mirza, Vabysmo can be more strong and effective, and this opinion has been conveyed to the CEO of PIMS and retina specialist Dr Nadeem Qureshi. However, for now, a decision has been made to continue Eylea as it is showing positive results.
The next step is an angiogram, after which it would be decided whether laser treatment is needed or not.
Our concerns regarding Imran Khan’s right eye remain, and his treatment should be transparently supervised by Khan’s own doctors!”]
Imran Khan loses partial vision in right eye
The news of PTI founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan partially losing vision in his right eye surfaced on 12 February. Salman Safdar, a lawyer appointed by the Supreme Court on this case, has been quoted as telling the court that Khan has lost 85% of the sight in his right eye.
Safdar, who has been appointed by the Supreme Court as amicus curiae (friend of the court), had visited Khan in prison on 10 February. He submitted a detailed report to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hasan writing that Khan had been experiencing blurred and hazy vision for three months but the jail superintendent only gave him eye drops when he was informed. Safdar added that the PTI founder was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right eye which has affected his vision
A few days later, news of improvement in Khan’s vision was reported by a government appointed board after his medical examination was conducted on 15 February.
Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister’s family has been denied visits to him despite protests. On 4 February his son, Kasim Khan, wrote on X that they want to meet their father but their visas have been refused. He wrote: “My brother and I are trying to travel to Pakistan to see our father. For 914 days, he has been held in solitary confinement while his health deteriorates and he is denied access to independent medical care. Now the government is deliberately refusing to process our visas. Denying a prisoner treatment is cruel. Denying his children the right to see him is collective punishment. I call on international human rights organisations and governments to speak out and act before irreversible harm is done.”
Other than this, on 19 Feb Khan’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Central Information Department issued a statement, expressing concerns over his health. In the statement, the party demanded immediate transparency and unrestricted access for personal physicians to examine Khan, citing grave concerns over his health and the government’s “unacceptable” silence. It further read that this is a matter of national trust and human rights, insisting that the former premier be allowed diagnostic tests and potential transfer to a hospital of his choice to alleviate growing public anxiety.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check suspected the X post’s authenticity as Imran Khan’s other sister, Aleema Khan had also posted on X the same day, demanding that her brother receive treatment in the presence of his personal doctor. On 15 February, the day when the account attributed to Noreen Niazi posted about improvement in Khan’s eye condition, Aleema Khanum took to X and expressed concern over the government rejecting the names of doctors that were given by his family. The post says:
“Our demand has been clear from the beginning: Imran Khan has to be examined and treated by specialist doctors in the presence of his personal doctor (Dr. Asim Yousaf) along with a family member present at Shifa International in Islamabad.
The Govt rejected the specialist recommended by our doctors, so they were provided with alternative names. We had given Dr. Uzma Khan’s name to represent our family. We were told that Imran Khan’s sisters will not be permitted and we must provide an alternative name to represent the family. We then gave them our cousin Dr. Nausherwan Burki’s name to represent the family. We are very disturbed when they rejected his name as well.
This is unacceptable! Our concerns are growing as to WHY are they rejecting our family member to be present? Are both names (Dr. Uzma and Dr. Nausherwan) being rejected because they are highly qualified doctors”
This shows a contradiction between the family’s stance and the claims made on the X post by the account attributed to Niazi. On the one hand, the fake profile states that the condition of Khan’s eye was better, while on the other Khanum expressed concerns regarding this. Other than this, the false post states Dr Aasim Yusuf participated in the medical review, but Khanum’s post states that his presence was rejected.
This conflict in information proves that the account was fake as it provided an update which was different from what the family was saying.
On 16 February, Pakistani publication, Dawn, quoted the fake profile of Niazi, stating that the condition of Khan’s right eye was improving.
Thereafter, PTI issued a response to the article published by Dawn, stating that the party rejected the report regarding Khan’s health. The PTI said the report was based on a social media post originating from a “fake account falsely attributed to Khan’s sister, Noreen Khan”. Niazi’s original X profile was instead mentioned in a post on the party’s X profile.
Later, Dawn issued an apology for the “misinformation” on their Instagram account, stating that the story they published quoted an imposter social media account and it was an editorial lapse.
Other than this, Dr Aasim Yusuf, Shaukat Khanum’s chief medical officer and Khan’s longtime personal physician, posted a video on 16 February on the official X account of the hospital saying he could not confirm or deny the veracity of the report as he had not seen the former premier himself.
Moreover, Noreen Niazi was reported protesting outside Adiala Jail over Imran Khan’s health condition. On 18 February, an Indian news channel, Republic World, posted the live coverage on their YouTube channel of the protest outside Adiala Jail, where she says:
[Translation: “What is happening today, they have reached here systematically after the past few months. They had planned this in advance. They first stopped our visits one by one. First Aleema Khanum was told that she cannot go. They stopped the lawyers, people from his [Khan’s] political party. I am upset that we should have held such a sit-in that we would have never ended. They are criminals, they have done a crime. How dare they take Imran Khan to PIMS in the thick of the night without informing his family. These are the people who have never seen PIMS. Imran Khan is the only Pakistani who is the identity of Pakistan. Nobody knows them. You go and ask who these people are, no one in the world knows them. They should not even think of Imran Khan’s life. If they don’t bring Imran Khan in front, and don’t take him to the hospital, do they think we will sit peacefully. We will go to the hospital with them.”]
Based on the verification by PTI, Dr Aasim Yusuf’s statement thereafter, and that Khan’s sisters were protesting outside Adiala Jail around the same time over the condition of his eye, Soch Fact Check concludes that the X post was made by a fake account. Noreen Niazi did not post on X saying Imran Khan’s eye had improved.
Virality
The X post by Niazi’s fake account was reposted by a verified account here and by others here and here. However, many users also called it out as a fake account here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The X post attributed to Noreen Niazi was made by a fake account.