Iqbal happy at Services Hospital

Refuses transfer to private facility; Bilawal calls for probe into attack

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has decided to continue his medical treatment at the public sector Lahore Services Hospital rather than at a top private facility, according to a statement from the Ministry of Interior.

The statement, issued on Thursday, adds that after the attack on the interior minister, he was told that arrangements for his medical treatment had been made at a top private hospital and at Services Hospital. Even at the time, Iqbal had preferred the government hospital.



Moreover, the interior minister met the Punjab Health Secretary Najam Shah during his treatment in the hospital and has advised her to expedite work on Medical College Narowal, it added.

He also asked the provincial secretary to resolve issues relating to the transfer request of a widow, which is pending for the past four months.

Bilawal seeks probe

Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked the government to launch a probe into the assassination attempt on Iqbal.

Bilawal visited the minister at Lahore's Services Hospital on Thursday.

Speaking to media outside the hospital, the PPP chairman strongly condemned the attack and called for a thorough investigation into the assassination bid. He added that there should be zero tolerance for hate politics.

“Both the government and the opposition have to get united against the politics of hate as it is the only possible way to counter extremism in the country,” Bilawal maintained.

Bilawal also condemned the release of terrorists arrested in relation to the assassination of his mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto. “We submitted a request when five terrorists were acquitted. Even the DNA tests carried out at an international laboratory proved their involvement…despite which bail was granted,” he lamented and added that Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was not his personal issue, but rather "a national issue."



Speaking about clashes between his party and Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) workers in Karachi, he said that his party had been condemning such attacks since day one. “All our opponents are humans first and then politicians…We all should come together against politics of hate,” he stressed.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was shot and injured during a rally in Narowal's tehsil Kanjror on Sunday.