The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and wounded at least 10 others, significantly raising the stakes in political crisis gripping the country since Imran’s ousting in April.

Imran “was stable and he was doing fine” at Shaukat Khanum hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP Friday morning.

The 70-year-old former international cricket star had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands since last week from Lahore to Islamabad when he was attacked.

Imran escaped with at least one bullet wound to his right leg when a gunmen sprayed pistol fire at his modified container truck as it slowly drove through a thick crowd in Wazirabad, around 170 kilometres (100 miles) east of Islamabad.

“Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit,” former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Imran, told AFP.

Senior aide Raoof Hasan told AFP it was “an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him”.

Several leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have blamed the government for the assassination attempt, which the authorities have denied.

Fawad said PTI officials would meet later Friday to discuss the immediate fate of Imran’s campaign march, but vowed it would continue.

“The real freedom long march will continue and the movement for people’s rights will remain until an announcement on the general elections,” he tweeted.