PML-N demands Hamza shifting to hospital

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Sunday demanded that Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz be shifted to Ittefaq Hospital in Lahore after he was tested positive for Covid-19.

Nawaz league’s Deputy Secretary General Atta Tarrar revealed on his Twitter handle in the early hours on Sunday that the PML-N leader had contracted coronavirus.

Subsequently, Atta wrote to the authorities concerned asking them to shift Hamza to Ittefaq Hospital immediately so that he could be treated by his physician Dr Rizwan Akhtar there.

Atta in his request said that Hamza had been unwell since a week.

While speaking to The Express Tribune, Atta said that to his knowledge, Hamza had not been shifted to any hospital and that the PML-N leader had been suffering from high fever and experiencing shortness of breath for the past week. He said the government was taking the matter lightly.

Atta revealed that on Saturday, Hamza’s family met him, including his father Shehbaz Sharif.

He said given that Hamza had contracted the virus, the entire family would be tested for Covid-19 including Shehbaz.

Hamza has been in the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) custody since June last year.

The national graft-buster is investigating two different cases against him regarding money laundering and holding assets beyond means.

Shehbaz also confirmed that his son had been diagnosed with coronavirus and added that after having fought the cases against him during the Musharraf era, Hamza was now facing a “political vengeance at the hands of the NAB-Niazi nexus”. He asked people to pray for his son’s recovery.

Vice-president of PML-N Maryam Nawaz who had returned to Lahore from Murree on Sunday also took to Twitter to express her concerns.

“This oppressive regime has been toying with the health of political opponents by keeping them in inhuman conditions,” she said on the micro-blogging website.

“My brother Hamza Shehbaz Sharif is the latest victim of this brutality who has been tested positive for Covid-19 but not being given the required medical attention,” she added.

“Hamza Shehbaz has unjustly and illegally been incarcerated for more than a year now. The tyrants masking as rulers must know that even the naked, brutal force they rely upon will be of no help when the payback time strikes & the day is not far, Insha’Allah.”

In another tweet, Maryam wrote it was yet to be investigated what food Nawaz Sharif was given after he was barred from having home-cooked meals, “which, instantly exacerbated his health, causing a dangerous drop in his platelets and triggering a heart attack”.

She said the fact that Hamza had contracted coronavirus in solitary confinement also merited an investigation.