• Welcome regional diplomacy; insist party’s protest called off to ‘give dialogue a chance’
• PTI renews demand to shift Imran to Shifa hospital over eyesight concerns

LAHORE / ISLAMABAD: The PTI’s jailed leadership on Thursday stressed that the government’s push for regional diplomacy was a “correct and responsible” approach but questioned why calls for peace abroad were not matched by efforts to resolve Pakistan’s prolonged internal political crisis.

In a joint letter from Kot Lakhpat Jail, delivered through their counsel Rana Mudassar Umer, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, Omer Sarfraz Cheema and Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said the prime minister’s intervention to seek a pause in the Middle East conflict was a welcome step, but his “indifference” to domestic political polarisation was “beyond comprehension”.

The leaders also insisted that the party had called off its planned protest at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh to give dialogue and diplomacy a chance but stressed that similar efforts were needed within the country.

The incarcerated leaders asked whether the coalition government of Shehbaz Sharif could earn the trust of Pakistanis by dealing with the challenges of the “precarious economic situation” confronting Pakistan without political stability.

“Can Pakistan successfully face the challenge of sponsored insurgency in Balochistan without national unity? Can we defeat the rising wave of terrorism without all the stakeholders being on the same page? Can we overlook the enormous blood loss from our Eastern border?” they asked.

They questioned whether governance issues in Sindh could be addressed and quality services delivered to remote districts of Punjab with what they described as a “yoke of illegitimacy”, and asked if the future of democracy could be ensured without credible elections or if institutional reforms and economic restructuring were possible without national consensus.

They also criticised what they described as shrinking political space for the opposition, particularly PTI, and the use of accountability for “political engineering”.

Imran’s health concern

Separately, the PTI renewed its demand for the transfer of party founder Imran Khan from jail to Shifa International Hospital, citing concerns over his deteriorating eyesight.

The demand followed claims by his counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, who said after meeting him in Adiala jail on Wednesday that the former prime minister’s vision-related issues could not be improved.

In a statement issued on Thursday, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram expressed grave concern over Mr Khan’s health, describing the situation as “extremely alarming” and urging authorities to ensure immediate medical treatment under the supervision of his personal physicians.

He also demanded that Mr Khan be granted unhindered access to his family, lawyers and party leadership, alleging that he was being denied basic legal and constitutional rights, including adequate healthcare, access to media and regular meetings, and was being kept in solitary confinement.

Mr Akram also criticised the authorities over the treatment of Mr Khan’s spouse, Bushra Bibi, stating that she had not been allowed to meet him despite being a former first lady.

Describing April 9 as a “black day”, Mr Waqas termed the ouster of the PTI government in 2022 a “regime-change conspiracy” and said the country had since faced rising debt, inflation, unemployment and governance challenges.

He reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy remained the only viable path to resolving both domestic and regional conflicts and urged all stakeholders to prioritise political stability and work towards a lasting resolution.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2026