Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Filing another application before the Supreme Court for early hearing of his plea against the Feb 25 order of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which had dismissed his bail petition on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia corruption case, the counsel for former prime minister Nawaz Sharif urged the top court to adjudicate the matter during the ongoing week.

Nawaz Sharif had earlier invoked the Islamabad High Court jurisdiction for bail on medical grounds but a two-judge bench of the high court comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani had rejected the plea while denying the grounds for remedy in the matter. Subsequently, counsel for Nawaz Sharif had challenged the IHC verdict before the Supreme Court.

On March 01, the counsel had filed an application seeking early hearing of the civil petition for leave to appeal (CPLA) on March 06 but the registrar of the top court rejected the application on the grounds that no special treatment could be accorded and the routine procedure would be followed to take up the matter.

On Monday, filing another application for early hearing of the matter through advocate on record Mehar Khan Malik, the counsel for Nawaz Sharif requested the top court to take up the matter for adjudication. “Since rejection of the application for early hearing of the petition, the medical condition of Nawaz Sharif has worsened and, as such, the instant application is being filed with a prayer that in view of the urgency involved in this case the titled CPLA may be ordered to be fixed in this week,” the fresh application stated.

Nawaz Sharif in his appeal has contended that the IHC’s Feb 25 order is in violation of his fundamental right to life as guaranteed by Article 9 of the constitution, adding the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978, are neither relevant to nor are invoked by him for the suspension of his sentence on medical grounds. As such reference to the police rules or their non-applicability to his case is redundant and extraneous to his plea for suspension of sentence. The appeal also highlighted that the diagnosis recorded in the medical reports of the special medical boards suggested that he is suffering from recurrent angina, ischemic heart disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease-stage 3, diabetic nephropathy, dyslipidemia and hyperuricemia.