The PTI’s core committee has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi to ensure court orders on jailed party founder Imran Khan’s medical treatment are implemented, after reports that the former prime minister’s blood pressure recently surged to 192. The committee met late on Thursday and continued into the night, after being briefed on Imran’s recent meeting with his lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, at Adiala jail. It termed the reports about the blood pressure spike ‘extremely alarming’ and unanimously resolved that protecting Imran’s health and life was an urgent humanitarian issue, adding that any negligence, delay or irresponsibility in this regard was unacceptable. The party demanded that the government give Imran’s personal physicians ‘immediate, unhindered and effective access’ to him, arrange all necessary medical examinations and diagnostic tests without delay, and transfer him to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for a complete medical evaluation and treatment. It appealed to the chief justice to give the matter ‘immediate attention’ in view of its ‘exceptional humanitarian importance’. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said separately on Friday that he had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking implementation of its 18 August order, which directed that Imran be transferred to a hospital and a medical board be constituted to oversee his care. That order followed a report from the Adiala jail superintendent on Imran’s health; a PIMS doctor who examined him on 1 August had noted complaints of uncontrolled and fluctuating blood pressure, palpitations, headache and restlessness. Imran has been imprisoned since August 2023. The committee also expressed concern over an incident involving jailed PTI vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who fell in Kot Lakhpat jail, and sought his hospitalisation.

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