ISLAMABAD: As the TTAP’s sit-in continued for the fifth day after the blocked routes to Parliament House were cleared, the alliance expressed hope on Tuesday that at least one family member of the incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan or a party leader would be allowed to meet him today amid concerns about his health.
The hope, however, did not materialise.
In the afternoon, an X account of the PTI said that a vehicle carrying Imran’s sisters was stopped at the Chakri Interchange while on its way to the Adiala jail.
Later, Imran’s sister Aleema Khanum also claimed in a post that “we were stopped at the Chakri police post by the police. When we informed them that we intended to leave and proceed to Islamabad, they unlawfully blocked us and detained us there for the next four hours”.
“We have now been released and are on our way to Islamabad,” she added.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Secretary General Salman Akram Raja also sought to meet Imran today but were told by the Adiala jail administration that the meeting could not be allowed.
Speaking to the media on the occasion, Raja said Imran’s medical report released on Monday indicated that he had an eye ailment. He added that the court had also issued directives for meetings with Imran and yet, his associates and family members were not being allowed to meet him.
Imran’s family and associates had been barred from visiting him for several weeks until the Supreme Court’s (SC) intervention last week led to PTI lawyer Salman Safdar being allowed to visit him. Following his visit, he submitted a report to the SC, which quoted Imran as saying only 15 per cent vision was left in his right eye.
This prompted a strong response from the opposition alliance, which began a sit-in at the Parliament House for the fulfilment of its demands for Imran’s treatment and examination.
Raja said Safdar, in his report submitted to the Supreme Court after meeting Imran, “clearly stated that Imran Khan told him he could not see him with his right eye”.
The PTI leader demanded that Imran’s long-time personal physician Dr Aasim Yusuf and the former premier’s sisters should be allowed to meet him at the Adiala jail.
“We want to hear from Imran Khan that he is fine, and this should be conveyed by a person we can trust,” Raja said.
Meanwhile, family members of Imran’s wife, Bushra Bibi, were allowed to meet her at the Adiala jail, sources told Dawn.
According to the sources, three of her family members, including her daughter, met her for around 40 minutes.
Earlier in the day, TTAP spokesperson Akhunzada Hussain Ahmed Yousafzai had told Dawn that as Tuesday was supposed to be a meeting day with Imran, two of the sit-in participants — Raja and Gohar — would be going to Adiala jail, as their names had been included in the list of those to meet the PTI founder.
“Moreover, we are hoping that the meeting of all sisters or at least one of the family members will be allowed today,” he had said. “It will end the rumours about the health of Imran Khan, as they will directly hear from him and will share Khan sahib’s views regarding his health.”
Responding to a question, Yousufzai said that the government should allow the meeting as it may help defuse the current tensions if the medical report regarding Imran was correct.
“It is a fact that during the last two years we have been deceived a number of times, due to which the level of trust has been reduced,” he said.
The spokesperson further said he met Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi last night, where it was decided to hold an evening meeting to determine the next course of action.
The opposition on Monday decided to extend their sit-in at the Parliament House, which began on Friday, for another day to “see the government’s response” to their demand for access to the former premier, whose health has recently been called into question by a medical report following his examination at the Adiala jail on Sunday.
After Imran was not allowed visits today, the TTAP held an “emergency meeting” at the Parliament House to discuss the course of action pertaining to Imran’s “deteriorating health and the government’s negligence, non-serious attitude and lack of transparency in the information being provided on the matter”.
A statement by the TTAP said that the “future course of action, joint strategy and probable constitutional and parliamentary measures” were discussed in the meeting.
CM Afridi and MPAs also continued their demonstration outside the KP House in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Imran’s party, family ‘reject’ medical report
Imran’s party and family have rejected the report issued by a team of doctors who examined the jailed ex-premier on Sunday, sticking to their demand that he be taken to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital in the presence of his personal doctors.
In a post on X, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram referred to the statement by Imran’s longtime personal physician Dr Aasim Yusuf, who had spoken to the doctors currently treating the ex-prime minister.
Akram noted that Dr Yusuf said “that he neither met Khan nor could he talk to him nor could he examine him or take care of him, therefore he can neither confirm nor deny” the report prepared.
He stated that the PTI “rejects this report and strongly demands that Imran Khan sahib be immediately met by his family and personal physician and that he be immediately treated and examined at Al-Shifa International”.
“To issue such a report by having doctors of one’s choice examine him shows that something is definitely being hidden and the only solution to avoid all this is to immediately have Imran Khan examined at Shifa International on the recommendation of his family and personal physician,” Akram contended.
In her statement posted hours earlier, Imran’s sister Aleema Khanum also said: “We categorically REJECT all the medical reports circulating in the media regarding Imran Khan.”
“[…] as Dr Asim Yousuf stated in his video, there is NO way for us to verify any of this,” she highlighted.
“Now we are even more concerned and worried and our demand remains unchanged: Imran Khan must be urgently transferred to a proper medical facility (Shifa International Hospital Islamabad) where he shall be examined by qualified specialists under Dr Asim Yousuf’s supervision and in the presence of his family,” Aleema demanded.
She added that she and others will be at the Adiala jail at 1:30pm today to attempt to meet Imran.
“We expect the authorities to allow us to meet Imran Khan as this is his legal right,” the sister said.
