Lahore, Feb 1 (PTI) Pakistan’s deposed prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has ruled out his immediate return to the country because “solitary confinement in jail” can pose a ‘serious risk’ to his life.
Sharif, who has been in London since November 2019 for his ‘medical treatment’ after the Lahore High Court granted him a four-week bail, submitted a fresh medical report to the court on Tuesday through his counsel. The report was submitted to the LHC in compliance with its order.
The report, authored and signed by US cardiologist Dr Fayaz Shawl, says: “I found Mr Sharif under a lot of stress, if he returns to Pakistan without undergoing a definitive treatment in London, the stress of living again in a solitary confinement (in jail) as well loss of a partner can further compromise his cardiac status before definitive treatment can be rendered.” Sharif was in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail serving a seven-year term in a corruption case when the court allowed him to go to London for medical treatment for four weeks but he never came back at the end of the deadline.
His party has maintained that 71-year-old Sharif would be back when allowed by the doctors.
The Imran Khan government has declared that Sharif would be put behind bars being a proclaimed offender (declared by court). Keeping that perspective in view Dr Shawl said: “If Nawaz Sharif returns to solitary confinement he may develop what we call ‘takstsubo syndrome’ due to stressful environment with devastating consequences.” “Sharif had undergone extensive investigations since he arrived in London (Nov 2019) and the investigations confirmed that he has significant ischemia (a condition in which the blood flow is restricted or reduced in a part of the body) in the distribution of his left circumflex artery. He should undergo coronary angiography to reassess his coronary anatomy so that appropriate therapeutic modality could be recommended before he returns to Pakistan,” Dr Shawl said.
Terming Sharif’s ‘fresh’ medical report ‘fake’, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry questioned why a doctor from the US had written his medical report despite the fact the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo has been residing in London since he left Pakistan in November 2019.
“Such fake reports make a mockery of the country’s judicial system and laws,” Chaudhry lamented and asked Sharif to return the looted money and never return.
In August last year, the UK Home Office had rejected a request by Sharif for an extension in his visa. Sharif has filed an appeal against the decision in the immigration tribunal. PTI MZ ZH ZH
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