Pakistan’s Convicted Ex-PM Leaves for U.K. for Medical Treatment
Sharif was flown in an air-ambulance arranged by his family after the Lahore High Court lifted traveling restrictions.
(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose seven-year imprisonment in a corruption case was suspended by the Islamabad High Court in October, left for London on Tuesday to seek medical treatment.
Sharif was flown in an air-ambulance arranged by his family after the Lahore High Court lifted traveling restrictions, and gave him permission to go abroad to seek medical attention of his choice, Ahsan Iqbal, a senior leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said by phone. Sharif may be taken to the U.S. on doctor’s advice, he said.
The former three-times premier Sharif, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2017 and convicted by an anti-graft court a year later for creating assets from unknown means, has multiple ailments including deteriorating kidney functions, low blood platelet count and heart attack risk, his personal physician Adnan Khan has said. The Islamabad High Court last month suspended his sentence for eight weeks on medical grounds.
The ex-premier departed after the Lahore High Court turned down a condition set by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, seeking a 7-billion-rupee ($45 million) indemnity bond to travel overseas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kamran Haider in Islamabad at khaider2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Khalid Qayum
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