PESHAWAR, Aug 1: Veteran politician Khan Abdul Wali Khan has been admitted to a hospital where his family says his condition is improving. Family sources said that Wali Khan was taken to the Rehman Medical Institute here on Friday after developing pulmonary odema (lungs congestion).

The 87-year-old ANP Rahbar-i-Tehrik suffers from a host of diseases, including heart ailment, diabetes and blood pressure and has been bed- ridden for a few years.

A doctor told Dawn that the second son of the 'Red Shirt' leader, Bacha Khan, who had had a heart bypass surgery at London's Cromwell Hospital about three years ago, developed pulmonary odema which was thought to be serious.

"Any complication developing after heart bypass surgery is considered serious," the doctor said. But a family source said the condition of the veteran politician was improving and that he had his evening meal on Sunday. "His condition is stabilizing.

The doctors are keeping him under observation and we hope that very soon he will be allowed to go home," the source said. "His condition has stabilized," a senior doctor said. "He has been shifted to the ward now," he said.

Doctors at the RMI and his family have declined to comment publicly on Mr Khan's treatment at the hospital. His family has generally restricted its acknowledgement to the fact that the ANP leader is ill, apprehending a big turn out at the hospital causing inconvenience to both to the patient and the hospital administration. The ANP leader had opted retirement from active politics after his defeat in the 1990 general elections.