LAHORE: Incarcerated PTI leader Yasmin Rashid’s health deteriorated again in jail on Monday after she was discharged from a hospital, according to her lawyer Rana Mudassar.
Rashid has been in prison for almost a year now in connection with multiple cases against her regarding the events of May 9, 2023, when countrywide protests and riots broke out after the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan.
Last week, she was moved to a hospital in Lahore after her health deteriorated in Kot Lakhpat Jail. She was hospitalised in May and July of last year as well.
Mudassar, Rashid’s advocate, told media that Rashid had a severe infection in her stomach and was also having difficulty breathing.
“Rashid was forcibly discharged from the hospital on Saturday. She underwent various tests, but she was not fully treated in light of the reports.”
He added Rashid was “transferred to jail without informing her family and lawyers” upon being discharged. “Yasmin Rashid has a fundamental right to health and medical facilities,” Mudassar said.
Moeen Riaz Qureshi, deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, slammed the lack of medical care provided to Rashid, calling it “pathetic” and immoral that the government would deprive “an old lady, a cancer survivor, an ex-health minister” of medical facilities.
“She needs urgent medical attention […] Her sleep is constantly disturbed; she can’t breathe properly. Even when they gave her the [BIPAP] machine, they turned off the electricity at night in the name of load shedding so it couldn’t work,” he said.
He warned against allowing Rashid’s health to deteriorate for the sake of “political stunting”, saying that the government would “regret it”.
The PTI’s US division said Rashid was “being humiliated by the state”. “This isn’t justice. It’s vengeance,” it added.
On July 12, an anti-terrorism court reserved its verdict on the bail petitions of former Punjab governor Umar Sarfraz Cheema and Rashid in cases related to the May 9 riots.
The same day, Rashid and four other PTI senior leaders incarcerated in Kot Lakhpat Jail demanded fresh, free and fair general elections in the country in an open letter.
