Sharif’s no to hospital, ‘can’t appear weak’

Fasihur Rehman Khan

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Islamabad, July 23

Jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has for the moment refused to avail a hospital facility even after a medical board advised authorities to do so. 

Aides close to Sharif,  who is a heart and diabetes patient, however, revealed that the former premier might agree to hospitalisation within this week as he does not want to send out a weak signal to millions of party voters and supporters on July 25, only 24 hours before a crucial general election. Nawaz Sharif was quoted having told the authorities on Monday to provide him with medical facility on the jail premises. Doctors have done some basic tests and are going to do the more sophisticated ones in a day or two. 

Meanwhile, Sharif is also not giving a nod to shift his imrprisoned daughter and heir apparent, Maryam Nawaz , to a government rest house, some miles away from the jail.  Since Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law’s incarceration on July 13, the issue has become the most talked about in the political arena. 

The Opposition led by former cricketer-turned-politician, and premiership hopeful, Imran Khan has repeatedly objected to any extra facilities to the Sharifs. Supporters have since then demanded better medical and living conditions for the former premier. On Monday, provincial governors of Punjab and KPK provinces, both his party’s political appointees, met

Sharif in Adiyala Jail, Rawalpindi, to enquire about his health. Those meetings preceded President Mamnoon Hussain directing the caretaker PM to provide the best possible facilities to Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam courted arrest at the Lahore airport on July 13 on their return from London as thousands marched in his political bastion praising his courage, terming him a prisoner of conscience, facing the wrath of some influentials in the military establishment and superior judiciary. 

During their few days’ stay in London, the immediate family was taking care of Sharif’s wife, Begum Klusoom Nawaz, undergoing cancer treatment. She is still in a critical condition after a series of surgical procedures, conscious but unable to speak. Sharif had to fly back to the country to face 11 years of jail sentence handed out to him by an accountability court on graft charges (assets beyond means) as the country’s top court had ordered initiation of cases last year.   

Earlier, two medical teams examined the former premier in Adiyala Jail on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, a twin city adjacent to capital Islamabad. A recommendation by an official medical team was mandatory to shift the former premier to a hospital.