Imran Khan

Calcutta: Imran Khan, who underwent emergency surgery on Monday afternoon, to clear an intestinal obstruction, could be discharged from the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital on Saturday.

“It’s not confirmed, but a possibility... The doctors are, of course, very happy with the pace of the recovery,” Imran’s closest friend told The Telegraph, from Lahore, on Thursday evening.

Imran, according to the friend, “walked a bit” in his suite earlier in the day. “He’s still on a liquid diet, but walked a bit for the first time since the operation... He didn’t complain of discomfort, which is another positive sign...”

Also for the first time, the doctors allowed “select partymen” to call on Imran, a former Member of the National Assembly, for a “few minutes.”

Pakistan’s (1992) World Cup-winning captain heads the Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, which he founded in the mid-1990s. It has always been anti-establishment.