PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi (L) and Yasmin Rashid (R). PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Five senior PTI leaders jailed in Lahore’s Koth Lakhpat jail have written an open letter calling on Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi to re-investigate PTI founder Imran Khan’s health and treatment and “see that justice is done”.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and Omer Sarfraz Cheema appealed in a joint handwritten open letter shared by their lawyer Rana Mudassar on Wednesday.
They also drew a comparison between the events surrounding the jailed former prime minister’s treatment today and the treatment of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in 2019.
Nawaz, who was serving a prison sentence handed down by an accountability court that found him guilty of corruption in the Al Azizia case in 2019, had been allowed to travel to London for treatment after he was diagnosed with an immune system disorder. Before that, he also received treatment at the hospital in Pakistan.
The five PTI leaders said in their letter that in 2019, “when Nawaz Sharif was shifted to Services Hospital, Lahore for low platelet count, we as the incumbent government ensured that he should get proper treatment for his ailment”.
“His personal physician Dr Adnan was part of all meetings held by the medical council. We even personally asked Mian Nawaz Sharif if he was satisfied with his treatment,” the executives said.
They added that Nawaz was also asked if he wanted to be treated by a doctor of his choice and assured that the appropriate doctor would be called.
“His family and legal advisers had free access to him,” the letter added. “We are sure that if you ask Mian Nawaz Sharif personally, he will not refute our allegations,” it added.
The leaders recalled that Nawaz was also allowed to go to England for treatment.
Comparing those events with the situation today, the five leaders said that Imran, a former prime minister, has “faced obstacles of all kinds in his treatment”.
They accused the current government of carrying out a “cloak and dagger activity”, saying: “Firstly, the current government did not accept that he was ill and then when the news was leaked from Pims about his central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), the government bubbled around with all sorts of disgusting statements. His consultants’ rights were violated [ ] and his family was denied access [to him]; his lawyer and personal doctors could not see him.”
The jailed executives said Imran was taken to the hospital for a second injection on Tuesday, “but his family was not informed.”
Only PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan “received a message at 2 am that he had received his second injection”.
