December 09, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 28, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: Munir Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, is seriously ill and wants to go abroad quickly for treatment, a prominent activist said on Saturday, alleging he may have been poisoned.

Mr Malik has been in the government custody since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency Nov 3.

Asma Jehangir, who heads the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, suggested Mr Malik was poisoned, saying his health had deteriorated since he was “tricked into drinking a glass of juice laced with some unknown ingredient, which attacked vital organs.”

However, Ms Jehangir offered no evidence to back up her claim, saying the information came from an unidentified doctor who visited Mr Malik at a hospital where he was brought from jail.

She would not say when the doctor met Mr Malik, who is being treated for kidney and liver ailments amid tight security at a hospital in Karachi.

Efforts to reach government officials for comment on the allegations were not immediately successful.—AP