Islamabad, Feb 17 (IANS) The protest, led by senior leadership of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and members of the opposition alliance, the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP), entered its fifth day on Tuesday, local media reported.
Senior PTI leaders said on Tuesday that the party’s sit-in over concerns regarding former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s health condition would continue, Pakistan-based Geo News reported.
While speaking outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad, the province’s Chief Minister, Sohail Afridi, stated that PTI’s demands had been misrepresented. He said that Imran Khan be permitted to consult his personal physician and meet family members, and rejected suggestions that PTI was demanding a medical report.
Speaking to reporters, Sohail Afridi said, “Our demands did not include any report.” He stated, “We asked that he be allowed access to his personal doctor, a family member, an eye specialist and treatment at the Shifa International Hospital.”
He stated that authorities have accepted none of the demands raised by the opposition.
“If the government is not allowing his personal doctor to see him, then what is it trying to hide?” he asked, stressing that PTI’s demands were not unconstitutional and unlawful. Afridi stated that it was the legal and constitutional right of Imran Khan to undergo treatment from a physician of his choice, Geo News reported.
The opposition alliance has said that its protest was a matter of legal and constitutional rights, stressing that Imran Khan must be allowed to consult the doctor of his choice and meet PTI representatives.
Last week, Imran Khan, in a medical report submitted to the Supreme Court, claimed that he has only 15 per cent vision left in his right eye. A seven-page report submitted by PTI lawyer Salman Safdar to the Supreme Court regarding his visit to Adiala Jail stated, “According to the Petitioner (Imran), he was diagnosed with a blood clot that caused severe damage, and despite the treatment administered [including an injection], he has been left with only 15 per cent vision in his right eye.”
The court had appointed Safdar as amicus curiae (friend of the court), ordering him to meet PTI founder Imran Khan and submit a report on February 11. As per the report, Imran Khan had normal 6×6 vision in both eyes until October 2025. The report stated that Imran Khan then started experiencing persistent blurred and hazy vision, which he repeatedly informed the-then jail Superintendent. However, the jail authorities did not take action on his complaints.
Khan told Salman Safdar that he subsequently suffered an abrupt and complete loss of vision in his right eye. An eye specialist from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) had diagnosed that a blood clot had caused significant damage in his eye.
Imran Khan (73) has been kept in prison since August 2023 after convictions, which he and PTI have said are politically motivated. PTI founder has faced several cases, including over state gifts and unlawful marriage, since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in 2022. Some convictions have been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending in the courts.
–IANS
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