Daily Times

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has accused the federal government of deliberately impeding his treatment for heart-related ailments, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.

According to his brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, the three-time former prime minister is in high spirits but still requires immediate medical treatment. “He [Nawaz] says the doctors who examined him earlier said they were only sent to check and verify his health condition. The doctors said they did not have any orders to start his treatment,” Shehbaz told reporters on Saturday. He said the government’s failure to address concerns regarding Nawaz’s health is regrettable. “It is sad to see that the medical treatment of a three-time former prime minister has been made a political issue. This victimisation must end,” he maintained.

Shehbaz’s statement comes a day after the Punjab government wrote a letter to Nawaz Sharif stating that he was free to pursue treatment at a hospital and by doctor of his choosing in Lahore. The letter issued by a section officer of the home department stated, “I am directed to refer to the subject noted above and to state that with reference to earlier medical report of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, you have been examined by two cardiologists namely Dr Saqib Shafi Sheikh, Professor of Cardiology, KEMU/Mayo Hospital, Lahore, and Dr Shahid Hameed, Professor of Cardiology of Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, who advised admission in hospital/cardiac facility to undergo further investigation including coronary angiography/graft study. Your medication is also optimized in view of your symptoms.”

“I am further directed to refer to your meeting with Majeeb Ur Rehman Shami and Shahbaz Gill in Central Jail, Lahore, and to convey that Government of the Punjab is offering/allowing you to get yourself treated from any government hospital/any private hospital and from physicians/specialists/doctors as per your own choice, under intimation to this department. Your decision in this regard may please be communicated to Home Department, Government of the Punjab, as per your convenience and on priority basis,” it concluded.

Published in Daily Times, March 10^th 2019.