Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman and ex-president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari was admitted to a hospital on Friday after his health deteriorated, it emerged.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari flow into Karachi from Islamabad, while Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari and her husband have reached the city from Dubai to attend to the ailing party leader.
The former president had arrived in Karachi recently from Lahore and Islamabad. In Lahore, he had attended a meeting with former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi.
Dr Asim Hussain said the former president had undergone a medical check-up at a private hospital during which he had complained of severe back pain.
“An orthopedic surgeon is treating Asif Zardari, and he has undergone necessary medical tests,” he said while speaking to Geo News.
During his recent address at the National Assembly, Bilawal had said that Zardari had attended a budget session despite being unwell.
Back in January, Zardari had been shifted to Dr Ziauddin Hospital, Clifton, on account of ill-health.
A team of doctors had conducted a series of tests of the former president following his medical check-up. Per them, he had a backache as well as pain in his spinal cord.
They further said Zardari’s blood pressure was not stable besides he was also facing difficulty in breathing.
Doctors even temporarily barred visitors from meeting the former president, except his family members. He has been allowed only one attendant.
He has been admitted to hospital due to bad health in the past as well. In October, he was shifted to a private hospital in Karachi after he felt “unwell”.
Zardari, who is nominated in multiple corruption cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau, has been out on bail granted by the Islamabad High Court on medical grounds in 2019.
At the time, he had been indicted in a mega-money laundering, Park Lane properties and Thatta water supply references instituted by the bureau.
During a hearing of the bail petition filed by Zardari, his legal counsel, Farooq H. Naek, told the court that the former president “is a chronic patient suffering from multiple ailments.”
“He is a heart patient having three stents in his heart. He has a Holter Monitor attached to his chest so that the doctors are able to check and note variations in his heartbeat and blockages in his arteries. The petitioner is a patient of ischemic heart disease, which means that his heart may have an inadequate supply of blood and oxygen”.
Naek had said Zardari also “suffers from various other ailments such as cervical and lumbar spondylosis, sensory and motor neuropathy with impaired proprioception”.
Last year in October, the PPP leader and former president was admitted to a hospital due to low sugar level.
