Islamabad: Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC), Monday seeking bail on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia corruption case.
The Supreme Court earlier this month dismissed the 69-year-old three-time Prime Minister’s review petition seeking permanent bail on medical grounds and the permission to go abroad for treatment.
Sharif returned to the Kot Lakhpat jail May 7 to serve his seven-year prison term after the end of his six-week bail, which was granted to him on medical grounds with a condition that he would not leave Pakistan.
Opinions of specialist doctors from Switzerland, the US and the UK have been included in the petition filed at the high court by Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris, the ‘Express Tribune’ reported. “According to the medical board, Nawaz is suffering from numerous diseases,” the petition said.
Doctors have recommended that Sharif’s condition is life-threatening. Tension and stress can prove to be threatening to his life. Even Sharif’s blood and sugar levels have not normalised, the petition has further stated.
The petition stated that all members of the special medical board, along with doctors associated with Sheikh Zayed Hospital and National Hospital in Lahore as well as medical specialists from UK, USA and Switzerland were unanimous that Sharif’s treatment is not possible in jail premises.
The petition requested the court to allow Sharif get medical treatment abroad, claiming that the former Prime Minister was suffering from acute anxiety and depression that would lead to ‘sudden death’. It also said the medical professionals seeing the former premier in Pakistan recommend that he should be treated by his regular practitioners in the United Kingdom.
Sharif was convicted by an accountability court in one of the three corruption cases filed in the wake of the apex court’s July 28, 2017 order in Panama Papers case. Sharif and his family have denied any wrongdoing and allege that the corruption cases against them were politically motivated.
PTI