Supreme Court to decide whether ex-PM Sharif can leave Pakistan

Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has requested the top court of the country to grant him ‘permanent bail’ allowing to travel abroad for medical treatment.

The apex court is likely to take up the review petition for hearing on Monday.

On March 26 a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, had suspended Sharif’s sentence in the Al Azizia case for six weeks and granted him bail on medical grounds.

However, it had banned Sharif, who is also a leader of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, from travelling abroad during the period.

Sharif has now filed a plea in the Supreme Court, through his counsel Khawaja Haris, against the court’s order.

In its order the court had said Sharif would not be allowed to leave the country during the six weeks and, in case he failed to surrender after expiry of the bail period, he would be arrested instantly.

Now, after four weeks, the former premier has filed a review petition seeking a permanent bail and permission to travel abroad.

In the review petition, the Sharif’s lawyer argue that given the complicated and life-threatening nature of diseases his client is suffering from, the earlier decision should be reviewed and relief must be granted.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on information and broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan, in a statement described the former PM’s petition as a “drama” and plot to escape justice and his prison term.

“It has proved beyond any doubt that he wanted to go to London in order to escape prison,” she said.

The petition says Sharif is at present suffering from a number of diseases including heart disease, carotid artery disease, lymphadenopathy and renal artery infection coupled with related diseases -blood pressure, Type-II diabetes mellitus and third-stage chronic kidney disease.

Referring to a fresh medical report, the counsel submitted that Sharif continued to suffer from acute anxiety and depression, which may lead to “sudden death”.

It says the recommendation by the doctors unequivocally showed the treatment of Sharif, as well as his full recovery, were not possible within a six-week period and “it is requested that the SC may grant him bail without any specific condition,” the petition states.

The special medical board’s fresh report dated April 23 has also been annexed with the review petition that says the former prime minister is going through “extreme stressful circumstances in the last two years which multiplied manifold with his wife’s terminal illness and untimely demise”. “In our opinion, given Sharif’s multiple co-morbidities, any form or degree of stressful situation, physical or psychological, will significantly potentiate the disease and enhance the risk factors leading to the chances of a sudden cardiac death or significant cardiovascular/cerebrovascular morbidities vis-s-vis multiple debilitating co-morbidities.”