No timeline yet for Nawaz’s treatment: PML-N

Physician says risk of stroke significant as blood supply to brain interrupted

LAHORE: With almost three of the six-week bail granted by the Supreme Court for his treatment already passed, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will again be taken to Sharif Medical and Dental College on Monday (today) for yet another check-up.

According to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz media cell, Nawaz will be taken to the medical college for the sixth time.

Other than five trips to the same medical institute, he has also visited a private hospital in Gulberg, Lahore for multiple tests.

However, despite the passage of almost three weeks doctors have not yet given any timeline for Nawaz’s treatment.

Former premier’s personal physician Dr Adnan Khan on April 8 stated that the former PM would be “apprised of definitive treatment options conclusively, considering serious risk to life and health; due to significant disease burden”.



On April 9, he stated former PM Nawaz Sharif would require a “backup pacemaker and ICD to regulate cardiac rhythm and avoid fatal arrhythmias”. “Critical Carotid Artery Stenosis, affecting blood supply to brain, would need intervention as risk of stroke is significant,” he added.

Despite his back to back check-ups, tests and consultations with medical board, no treatment timeline has been established.

With half of his bail time left, Dr Adnan talking to The Express Tribune said, “It will be difficult to give any timelines regarding Nawaz treatment plan and it would be difficult to say if it is possible within the remaining bail period.”

He said angioplasty was the ultimate solution for his existing health issue. Surprisingly, the PML-N leaders had earlier, when Nawaz was being treated in government hospitals, before his punishment was suspended, created hue and cry over a few days check-up period in hospital calling it a deliberate attempt to delay his treatment. And using these excuses, Nawaz had refused to even accept the treatment.

This time around when doctors of his own choice were doing his check-up, the PML-N leaders are calling the delay a part of the procedure.

The deposed premier was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail after he was convicted by an accountability court in the Al Azizia corruption reference case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

He was exonerated in the Hill Metal Establishment reference.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2019.