KP CM Afridi reaches SC to request CJP to facilitate meeting between Imran Khan and physicians

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Friday reached to the Supreme Court to request the chief justice to facilitate a meeting between incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan and his personal physicians.

“The whole nation is concerned about the health of the country’s most popular leader, Imran Khan,” said Afridi, adding that he will try for a meeting to be arranged between the PTI founder and his personal physicians with the help of the chief justice.

The KP chief executive said the party would announce its future course of action if its attempts to meet Imran don’t bear fruit after approaching the apex court.

He lamented that while the courts are issuing decisions on petitions, “we are not getting justice”.

“Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi’s cases have not been listed for one year. If the cases are listed today and we are provided justice, Khan sahib and Bushra Bibi, along with other leaders, will be released from prison within half an hour,” he claimed.

“We were left with no option, so we opted for the only one available,” he added.

In response to a question on concluding the protest outside Adiala jail, where the KP chief minister, along with other lawmakers and party workers, had camped, he said, “I have come here.”

On Thursday, Afridi rushed to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi after a report that Imran was taken briefly to Pims hospital for a medical procedure. The KP CM said he would be camping at the spot overnight outside the prison, along with the party’s general secretary, Salman Akram Raja.

However, Afridi, along with the party’s leadership, left the spot at around 3am.

Afridi, has been seeking a meeting with the incarcerated prime minister since he assumed office of the provincial chief executive in October last year, but to no avail.

However, he, as well as Imran’s sisters and lawyers, have been barred from meeting him for the past several weeks — a restriction that has made sit-ins and protests near the prison a usual occurrence. On several occasions, police have also used force to disperse the protesters, who often camp at Factory Naka.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Afridi announced his plans for an overnight stay and said “most of [PTI] parliamentarians have also reached the spot and some others will be arriving in some time”.

The KP CM said if Imran’s sisters were allowed to meet him, the situation could be prevented from worsening.

CM Afridi’s visit comes after the PTI on Tuesday raised concerns about Imran’s health. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed earlier in the day that the PTI founder had undergone a medical procedure for an eye ailment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad on Saturday night.

Referring to Tarar’s statement, Afridi said he had “serious reservations” about the former premier’s health.

More to follow