 "Volunteers for former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) look on as they watch results on TV screens after the end of the polling during a general election at the party's main office in Islamabad, Pakistan, February 8, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)")
The leaders of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) slammed Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for extending an olive branch to India over the Kashmir issue. The attack came while the party was expressing concerns over the health of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On Thursday, the party released a statement commenting on reports that Khan has been suffering from rising sugar levels and irregular heartbeat. PTI urged the government to provide him with proper access to medical facilities and allow doctors of his choice to examine him.
The statement was shared by the party’s Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, who slammed the government and accused the authorities of denying the PTI chief his “constitutionally mandated rights and facilities”, as outlined in jail manuals.
“The PTI founder is being denied all facilities as part of a scheme to break him, both physically and mentally. Imran Khan’s health and well-being are of utmost importance to us and any negligence in providing medical care could have serious consequences,” Akram asserted in the statement.
PTI slams Sharif for ’extending an olive branch to India'
The PTI leader urged the government that the cricketer-turned-politician gets regular medical checkups by “physicians of his choice”. He also demanded that Khan should be allowed to communicate with his sons, insisting that it is “his fundamental and constitutional right.”
Akram requested the authorities for the immediate release of Khan, his wife and former Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi along with other jailed PTI leaders. “Imran Khan is being persecuted for an unrelenting dedication to reshaping Pakistan into a welfare state, where the government truly represents the people, rather than serving the interests of the power-hungry elite," he wrote in the statement.
The party went on to slam Pakistan’s current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for extending an olive branch to India over the Kashmir issue. “Pakistan should not engage in talks with India until the latter softens its stance and reinstates Kashmir’s special status — before the unilateral constitutional amendment of Aug 5, 2019,” the PTI leader said.
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More ShortsWith inputs from agencies.