Shehbaz suspends political activities after back injury

Leader of opposition in NA slipped on staircase

LAHORE:

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday suspended all political activities for two weeks after falling down on a staircase and hurting his back.

According to sources, doctors have advised the PML-N president to take complete rest for two weeks after reviewing medical reports.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb also confirmed the development in a tweet, saying that the incident occurred when the party president was leaving for a press conference a day before on September 29.

She added that Shehbaz, who is also leader of opposition in the National Assembly, was safe from any major injury. However, on the advice of the doctors, the opposition leader has suspended all political activities for two weeks.

“Doctors have advised him complete rest and physiotherapy,” Marriyum said.

Read Shehbaz Sharif takes PML-N to reconciliatory path

The recent incident has again caused back pain to the opposition leader as in 2019 Shehbaz had complained about the same problem due to which his Magnetic Resonance Imaging was conducted.

The MRI report had later shown complications in his spinal disks, prompting doctors to advise him to undergo surgery, as per media reports.

The incident might calm the political atmosphere that brew after a UK court ordered unfreezing of the bank accounts of Shehbaz and his son Suleman Shehbaz.

According to news reports, the NCA had conducted a 17-month long probe in which it examined Shehbaz’s financial transactions over the past 20 years. It said that no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities against the PML-N president or his family was found.

In reaction, Adviser to the PM on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar claimed that only the bank accounts of Shehbaz and Suleman had been unfrozen following the NCA’s report and that they had not been acquitted of money laundering charges.