Imran Khan to leave hospital two weeks after fall at election rally

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani politician Imran Khan is to leave hospital on Wednesday, his party and medics said on Tuesday, two weeks after breaking bones in his back in a fall at an election rally.

The 60-year-old was ordered by doctors to remain immobile in a hospital bed with fractured vertebrae and a broken rib after falling from a hoist raising him to the stage at a rally just days before the May 11 general election.

Ms Shireen Mazari, spokesman for Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, said the former cricket star was feeling better and had managed to walk in hospital.

"Imran Khan will be discharged from hospital on Wednesday," she told AFP. "I have just talked to Imran Khan who told me that he will be going home tomorrow."

Mr Khwaja Nazir, spokesman for Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, where Mr Khan has been treated, confirmed that the PTI chief would be moving home on Wednesday.

"He has already worn a brace around his back, which he will have to use for four to six weeks," Nazir said.

Mr Khan electrified much of the campaign with his calls for reform and galvanised many young people to take part for the first time.

The election was won by the Pakistan Muslim League of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, but the PTI scored a major breakthrough, finishing in third place with 28 national assembly seats, according to partial results.

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