Pak’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM ends sit-in near Adiala Jail after being denied meeting with Imran Khan
Islamabad (PTI): The chief minister of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday ended a 16-hour long sit-in near Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, protesting against authorities for stopping him from meeting former prime minister Imran Khan.
Sohail Afridi last month replaced Ali Amin Ganadapur as chief minister and announced that his first priority was to get the 73-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician out of jail, where he has been languishing since August 2023.
However, Afridi has not been able to meet the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder in jail despite his strenuous efforts.
On Thursday, when he came to meet Khan, Afridi was stopped near the prison on the Adiala Road where he gave a ‘dharna’ with dozens of PTI party followers and his protest continued for about 16 hours.
As he wrapped up the protest in the early morning, Afridi told journalists at the Gorkhpur checkpoint near Adiala Jail that he along with party workers spent the entire night at the protest site but no information had been given about Khan
"We spent the night here with the workers — this was only one night," he said, adding, “If we have to spend our whole lives here for the PTI founder, we will do so.”
"We have not yet been told anything about the condition of the PTI founder," he said.
There were rumours about the deteriorating health of the former prime minister but authorities rejected the concerns and Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry told the parliament on Thursday that Khan was doing well and “enjoying facilities like personal chef which are not available to any other prisoner”.
Afridi, however, said that he would not back down from the demands to meet Khan and get information about his health. "We will not retreat from our protests and sit-ins," he asserted.
He also said his party used “all constitutional and legal options” in an attempt to meet the PTI founder, but to no avail.
“I have used every constitutional and legal path. What route is left for me to meet my leader?” he asked. The chief minister said that despite a court order, neither he nor other party leaders were allowed to meet Khan.
After ending his sit-in, the chief minister departed for Islamabad. He was expected to come back after filing a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking permission to meet the PTI founder.
Apart from Afridi, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, head of the opposition alliance the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, Senator Mishal Yousufzai, Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Rubina Naz and lawmaker Zulfiqar Ahmed and others attended the sit-in.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
