PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi (left) and Yasmin Rashid (right). PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Five senior PTI leaders incarcerated in Lahore’s Koth Lakhpat jail have written an open letter, urging Pakistan’s Chief Justice Yahya Afridi to re-examine the issue of PTI founder Imran Khan’s health and treatment and “ensure 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 treatment meted out to the jailed ex-prime minister today and that of PML-N supremo 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 affair in 2019, was allowed to travel to London for treatment after being diagnosed with an immune system disorder. Before that, he was also treated in a hospital in Pakistan.
The five PTI leaders said in their letter that in 2019, “when Nawaz Sharif was shifted to the Lahore Services Hospital due to low platelet count, we, as the sitting government, ensured that he received appropriate treatment for his illness.”
“His personal physician Dr Adnan attended all the meetings organized by the medical board. We even personally asked Mian Nawaz Sharif if he was satisfied with his treatment,” the leaders said.
They added that Nawaz was also asked if he wanted to be treated by a doctor of his choice and was assured that the concerned doctor would be called.
“His family and his lawyer had free access to him,” the letter states. “We are sure that if you personally question Mian Nawaz Sharif, he will not refute our claims,” the statement added.
The leaders recalled that Nawaz was also allowed to travel to England for treatment.
Comparing these events with the current situation, the five leaders said that Imran, a former prime minister, has “faced obstacles of all forms in his treatment”.
They accused the current government of carrying out a “cover-up”, saying: “First the current government did not accept that he was ill, then when the news was leaked by Pims about his central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), the government lashed out with all sorts of heinous statements. The rights of his consultants were violated. [ ] and his family did not have access [to him]; his lawyer and personal doctors were unable to meet him.
The jailed leaders said Imran was taken to hospital to receive a second injection on Tuesday, “but his family was not informed”.
Only PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan “received a message at 2 a.m. informing him that he had received his second injection.”
