Daily Times

Federal Minister for Health Abdul Qadir Patel has found himself sandwiched between his own party’s ire and a rival party’s legal firepower as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has served him a show-cause notice, while PTI chairman Imran Khan fired back with a Rs10 billion defamation notice over a fiery press conference.

Surprisingly, the PPP has issued a show-cause notice to its health minister for not taking the party into confidence before holding a news conference against the PTI chairman on May 26. During the conference, Patel had claimed that “traces of alcohol and cocaine were found in the former premier’s urine analysis”.

Patel had held the presser on Imran’s medical report, which was taken after he underwent an examination at PIMS hospital following his arrest on May 9 in the Al-Qadir Trust case. Reports said the PPP chairman’s office has issued the show-cause notice to the health minister and expressed extreme displeasure, as the minister held the press conference on his own without first bringing it to the party’s attention. “The chairman’s office is not happy with Patel’s press conference and has not only expressed displeasure but also issued a show-cause notice to him,” media reports said. The PPP leader stated that “the party was not consulted before the presser,” and that “he (Patel) did it on his own”.