RAWALPINDI: Pakis­tan Peoples Party leader Latif Khosa has called for allowing a panel of private doctors to examine incarcerated PPP leader and former president Asif Ali Zardari.

In an application submitted to the Adiala jail superintendent on Wednesday, Mr Zardari’s lawyer said that the doctors may be allowed to medically examine his client and they may also be facilitated to conduct any test required to safeguard his life.

Mr Khosa, who is a former governor of Punjab, said the PPP co-chairman was about 65 years old and suffering from multiple medical issues for a long time as has also been observed by the board of doctors constituted by the government under a court order of August 20 this year.

Lawyer says ex-president is suffering from multiple health issues

He said Mr Zardari’s medical condition and the persecutory nature of the false and politically motivated case merit that he may be allowed to be examined by the doctors of his own choice and medical experts at his own expense as mandated by the Constitution and the law.

He said other similarly poised NAB prisoners have been granted access to private doctors of their choice which also entitles the former president to similar treatment under Article 25 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s spokesman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that Mr Zardari was seriously ill and the government should allow private doctors and his own physicians to examine him.

He said the sugar level of the PPP co-chairman was decreasing fast and he was suffering from critical cardiac disease which needed attention of doctors.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2019