Incarcerated PTI leader Yasmin Rashid was shifted to a hospital in Lahore on Tuesday after her health deteriorated in Kot Lakhpat Jail, according to her lawyer.
Rashid has been in prison for more than two years now in connection with multiple cases against her regarding the events of May 9. She was first detained on May 12, 2023, under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance and later arrested for her alleged involvement in the May 9 riots.
She was hospitalised last year in May and July as well.
“Yasmin Rashid was shifted from jail to Services Hospital Emergency Department,” her lawyer Rana Mudassar told media.com.
He added that Rashid was experiencing severe difficulty in breathing and also suffering from extreme stomach pain.
“Dr Yasmin Rashid has also been given oxygen due to her difficulty in breathing,” Mudassar said, adding that she was being tested at the hospital.
PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram also confirmed the development in a post on X.
“Dr Yasmin Rashid has just been urgently shifted from Kot Lakhpat Jail to a hospital due to her deteriorating health,” he wrote.
He added that Rashid was suffering from various ailments and “has been unjustly imprisoned for 24 months”.
“PTI demands that, keeping the requirements of justice in view, Dr Yasmin’s bail be immediately granted,” he added.
Barrister Taimur Malik, who contested the 2024 polls with the support of the PTI and is a member of the party’s legal team, also called for Rashid to be “granted the right to bail like thousands of others in these cases”.
He said that the PTI had asked the courts repeatedly to decide her bail applications.
“More than two years in prison as an under-trial prisoner is punishment itself before any case has even been decided,” he added.
PTI leader Musarrat Cheema said, “Rashid is a cancer survivor; she also has a breathing issue, but she was not even provided with oxygen. Every day, she endures jail trials in bogus cases.”
She requested prayers for Rashid’s health.
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, and called for learning lessons from the 1970 debacle.
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