A seemingly innocuous statement issued by a military institute of cardiology asking people not to go abroad for treatment of heart diseases has raised questions about whether the Pakistan Army had an inkling of President Asif Ali Zardari’s plans to travel to Dubai, the Economic Times said in a report. The statement issued on November 23 by the Inter-Services Public Relations on behalf of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and National Institute of Heart Diseases said the state of the art facility “provides the best treatment to heart patients and there was no need for any heart patient to go abroad for treatment”. The institute’s spokesman said its executive director, Maj Gen Asif Ali Khan, had taken note of the case of a child from Peshawar who was suffering from a heart disease and had appealed to the president to help with his treatment abroad. The statement in Urdu, which was emailed to reporters, said Khan had asked the child’s family to contact the institute and said: “Since the institute is providing the best treatment, there is no need for any heart patient to go abroad anymore”. The statement and its timing has raised questions in Islamabad as to whether the military was aware of Zardari’s plans to travel abroad. “There definitely seems to be more to this than meets the eye,” a Western diplomat who was aware of the statement said.
Did army know of Zardari’s plans?
