KOHAT, Jan 21: In view of the deteriorating health of Jamaat-i-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who was under house arrest in the Tanda Dam Rest-house, the provincial government on Monday night shifted him to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar from where he will be flown to Lahore and admitted in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, reliable sources told Dawn on Monday.

The local administration, on the instructions of the chief secretary, first decided to take him to Lahore by road but when Mr Qazi complained of backache and pain in the chest, it was decided to shift him by air.

He was taken to Peshawar in an ambulance and admitted in the Lady Reading Hospital from where he would to be flown to Lahore through the first available flight on Tuesday.

It may be recalled that the physicians of Mr Qazi had been asking the government officials concerned to shift him to hospital because tension and absence of emergency care could endanger his life. Qazi had undergone heart surgery two years ago.