Pakistan to seek Nawaz’s repatriation from UK

Letter will be written to British authorities next week

SIALKOT: The federal government has decided to write a letter to UK authorities for the repatriation of convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif, who is being treated in London for a complicated coronary artery disease, after rejecting his request to allow a further extension in his bail on medical grounds.

“The departments concerned will write a letter next week for his deportation and the government will pursue the procedure for bringing back such people,” Special Assistant to the PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told reporters.

The Punjab government had recently announced that the Sharif family patriarch’s medical reports had failed to satisfy it into allowing a further extension in bail to him and would send its recommendations to the Centre for making the final call on the matter.

The PM’s aide said the former prime minister was yet to be admitted to a hospital in London and had also failed to submit his medical report to the Punjab government and courts.

Nawaz’s health debate

She added that that the Sharif brothers -- Nawaz and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif -- were protecting the businesses of their children while staying in London after being granted relief from courts under the guise of illness.

The special assistant maintained that an impression was created in connivance with some elements that Nawaz suffering from a life-threatening condition and he would not make it if the government and the courts did now grant him relief.

“The people who duped the people into believing this would soon be unmasked,” she added.

“It’s time to bring this VIP prisoner back to Pakistan.”

However, contrary to the statement of the PM’s aide, Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid said that Nawaz’s medical reports were not fabricated and she still stood by them.

“If he [Nawaz] has not been admitted to a hospital [London] for 16 weeks, it means that the treatment he underwent in Pakistan was effective and his condition has improved.”

Nawaz, who is serving a seven-year jail term, was diagnosed with an immune system disorder – acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) – in October last year.

He remained hospitalised in Pakistan for weeks and reportedly was in ‘very’ critical condition.

The Islamabad High Court suspended the prison sentence of the ailing former prime minister on medical grounds for eight weeks in the Al Azizia case on October 29 last year so he could receive medical treatment abroad.

It also directed him to seek the Punjab government’s permission for further relief, if required.

He was earlier also granted bail by the Lahore High Court in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

His bail had automatically extended for eight more weeks as the Punjab government had not announced its decision until then. The provincial government’s announcement came after the passage of 16 weeks.

Nawaz, along with his brother Shehbaz, left for London on November 20 — four days after the Lahore High Court directed the federal government to remove the former premier’s name from the Exit Control List.

The PTI-led federal government had also allowed him permission to fly abroad for treatment after a board of doctors constituted by the government concluded that his treatment was not possible in Pakistan.