Bilawal alleges Zardari not given access to specialist doctors, personal physician – Pakistan

PPP President Bilawal Bhutto said Tuesday that his father, former President Asif Ali Zardari, has not had access to medical specialists or his personal physician.

"Our family is increasingly worried about their health. If something happens to our father, this government will be responsible," he said on Twitter.

Zardari was taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) from the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi on October 22 and admitted to the VIP ward of the cardiology department. He underwent a series of tests and declared himself out of danger.

The former president had complaints of back pain, weakness and anxiety.

On Monday, a Pims medical board connected Zardari to a Holter monitor to check for variations in his heartbeat.

"The device has been put on due to the continuous variation in the patient's heartbeat," said Pims media coordinator Dr. Waseem Khawaja Dawn.

He added that the patient would remain in the hospital until all his tests returned to normal.

A Holter monitor is a portable device that works with batteries that measures and records the activity of the heart for 24 to 48 hours, or more, depending on the type of monitoring used.

A doctor at the Heart Center said the device has four or five electrodes connected to the chest.

He said patients receive the device when they complain of dizziness because this may occur due to a low heartbeat. "Zardari is sick, since he is diabetic, has arthritis and has received stents," he said, adding that he also had all these medical problems when he was president.

The PPP leader, Rehman Malik, a day earlier, sought relief for Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur over the pattern of legal remedy provided to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam.

"Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur are high-profile political personalities under trial and should not be treated as convicted prisoners," he said.

Zardari was arrested by the National Office of Responsibility (NAB) on June 10 after the cancellation of his bond prior to arrest by the Islamabad High Court in the case of false bank accounts.

Prior to his arrest, additional NAB attorney general Jahanzeb Bharwana had told the court that the anti-graft guard dog was investigating billions of rupee transactions through 28 bank accounts for which the investigation team required custody of the accused people.

Shahbaz & # 39; deeply worried & # 39;

Also on Tuesday, the president of PML-N, Shahbaz Sharif, said he was "deeply worried and extremely alarmed" about Zardari's ailment.

"The government must guarantee the provision of the former president's legal rights. Proper medical treatment is the basic human and legal right of Asif Ali Zardari!" the former prime minister of Punjab tweeted.