Imran Khan’s Life at Risk, Blood Pressure Reaches 192, Says Salman Akram Raja

ISLAMABAD: Salman Akram Raja, secretary general of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has expressed serious concern over the health of former prime minister Imran Khan, who is held in Adiala Jail. Speaking to the media after meeting Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) in Islamabad, he said Khan’s blood pressure was not returning to normal and that his life was at risk.

Raja said the party had earlier been informed that Khan had experienced high blood pressure in July and August, which later subsided. He said that in a meeting with Salman Safdar two days ago, Khan had described details that were extremely alarming. According to Khan, his upper blood pressure reading had reached 192 and this condition was recurring. Raja questioned what Khan was being fed, which medicines he was being given, and how his care was being managed.

The PTI secretary general said the current system was refusing to give Khan’s personal physicians access to him, although these doctors had been treating him for the past 40 years. He said that denying access not only created doubts but also strengthened the belief that things were not right. He stated that protecting Imran Khan’s life was the duty of everyone and of the entire nation, and that he wished to state clearly before the nation that Khan’s life was currently in danger.

Raja thanked Maulana Fazlur Rehman for raising his voice against governor’s rule and emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the hardships Maulana was facing because of this position were completely unacceptable, that his home and person were being attacked, and that in the country a person’s honour had been made a plaything to be tossed about at will.

He said PTI and JUI-F would work together to find solutions to the country’s problems, and that a committee had been formed for this purpose to set a joint course of action. Contacts would then be made with all democratic parties and other parties, large and small. He said the all-parties conference being moved towards would be the first step towards national unity, and that the nation must decide whether it wants to live a life of servitude or restore its dignity.

Raja said the roots of the federation were being weakened and that it was now time to save the country. He said blood had been shed in Azad Kashmir, more than 40 million people’s mandate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been attacked, Balochistan had been bleeding for decades and people were missing, Sindh’s peasants were anxious about the future of their water, and in Punjab there was no home where a voice for rights had been raised and not come under attack. He expressed determination that this struggle would be fought together with the nation.