ISLAMABAD, Nov 25: Munir A. Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, underwent two sessions of dialysis within 20 hours at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences amid fears that he was still in a critical condition.

Mr Malik was shifted to the hospital’s medical ward-I at around 6pm on Sunday from the private ward, which was being guarded by six personnel of the anti-terrorist squad, and local police were removed from the hospital after withdrawal of his detention order.

Mr Malik was put on dialysis for more than two hours and was brought back to his room at about 8.30pm. He had undergone a dialysis at around 10pm on Saturday.

Sources in the hospital said Mr Malik was in an ‘acute condition’. This was a case of criminal negligence and delay in medical treatment, they added.

They said the medical board which had examined Mr Malik suspected that the medicine he had taken for urinary problems had caused infection. Later, he suffered renal failure because he did not get proper attention.

“The next 48 hours are very crucial for Mr Malik’s life,” a senior doctor said.

No marks of violence were found on Mr Malik’s body, which showed that he had not been tortured during detention, but he seemed to be mentally tired and exhausted, the sources said.

Once a man of fair complexion, Mr Malik is now pale and speaks with pauses, most of the time in whispers.

“I was subjected to psychological torture, not physical torture, during detention,” he said after returning from the second dialysis. He said his stomach got stiffened and he started passing blood with stool on the third day in the Attock Jail.

“I was given some medicines in the jail but my condition started deteriorating,” he said, adding that his abdomen also started inflating.

He said a doctor had checked him after two days and sucked water from his abdomen with a syringe. Later, a specialist described his condition as ‘life threatening’ and asked the jail authorities to shift him to Islamabad because there was no facility in the jail to diagnose the disease.

Mr Malik could not continue as he was having difficulty in speaking.

His wife, Victoria Malik, said family members were in a state of shock and their first concern was about his health. Mr Malik, she added, had not spoken to the family about what he had faced during detention.

Federal Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney has sought a report on Mr Malik’s condition from the Inspector General of Punjab, IGP, Prison, and other authorities. He said strict action would be taken against people found to be negligent.