IK medical treatment: Opposition threatens protest during budget session

ISLAMABAD: As the government gears up to unveil its 2026-27 budget today (Friday), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led opposition parties issued a blunt warning on Thursday, threatening protests across Parliament and beyond if ex-premier Imran Khan is denied his preferred medical treatment.

The threat followed a tense meeting of a joint parliamentary opposition panel, where PTI lawmakers and MPs from allied groups made clear their non-negotiable demand: Khan must be shifted to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, with full access granted to his personal doctors and family.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, PTI acting chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan reduced the opposition’s stance to a single, uncompromising demand: immediate access for Khan to external medical care. He made it crystal clear that protests would continue throughout the budget session – both inside and outside Parliament – if the government failed to comply.

He was accompanied by senior opposition figures including Mehmood Khan Achakzai of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Raja Nasir Abbas of the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM). Together, they issued a blunt warning: no one would be allowed to stop their lawmakers from staging demonstrations during these crucial proceedings.

“No one can stop PTI lawmakers and their allies from protesting,” Gohar declared, insisting the move was a democratic right and vowing there would be “no compromise” on the matter.

The standoff further escalates an already volatile impasse over Imran Khan’s incarceration and access to medical treatment, repeatedly drawing in the judiciary, prison authorities and the political leadership.

Gohar insisted that blocking meetings with Khan, in defiance of court orders, amounted to outright contempt of court and a flagrant breach of fundamental rights, adding that such restrictions were a direct assault on the dignity of a former prime minister.

The briefing soon shifted into a scathing critique of the government’s economic stewardship.

Gohar slammed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration for mismanaging the economy and failing to deliver key reforms, singling out the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as a prime example of systemic administrative failure.

He questioned what had become of the government’s earlier claims of stabilising the economy, contrasting the present situation with reported GDP growth of around 6 percent under Khan’s tenure.

He lambasted the growing reliance on foreign borrowing and rising external debt, arguing that fiscal policy had only deepened economic strain.

At one point, Gohar went further, describing the government’s functioning as effectively monarchical – governed by excess rather than restraint – and markedly lacking in accountability.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026