Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Pervaiz Rasheed has rejected rumours of an alleged deal between party supremo Nawaz Sharif and the government, allowing the former prime minister to leave prison and travel abroad.
Speaking with the media, the lawmaker expressed regret at the rumours making the rounds, saying that there is no truth to the speculation that Sharif had struck such a deal.
“Political opponents (have) even denied the existence of the hospital where Begum Kulsoom Nawaz breathed her last. They also said Nawaz wouldn’t return to Pakistan. But Nawaz did return, he and his daughter both went to prison,” Rasheed pointed out. “If Nawaz had to cut some deal, he would not have gone to prison with his daughter (Maryam) in the first place.”
Sharif, who is serving a prison term after he was found guilty by an accountability court in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference in December last year, was shifted to Lahore’s Services Hospital from the Kot Lakhpat prison on Saturday.
An official of the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) who had seen the former premier’s medical reports said, on the condition of anonymity, that the doctors’ committee had recommended moving Sharif to a hospital where he could be examined by a kidney specialist and a diabetologist.
Another doctor, who had examined Nawaz during his incarceration at Adiala Jail, said that the former premier had serious health issues that could threaten his life.
“Nawaz has never struck a deal in his political career before, and he never will in the future too,” Rasheed said. “He is a dignified person and has always sacrificed [in the interests of the country].”
Asked about Sharif’s health condition, the senator said that like everyone else, including the Sharif family, he only found out that the former premier was being taken to a hospital through media reports.
“Maryam [Nawaz] also only found out through media. We didn’t even know he was being shifted to a hospital,” the PML-N leader said. “His doctors were also ignorant of his health condition. It would have been better if Nawaz’s family had been taken into confidence and made aware of his health.”
Rasheed said that he and other party members wished that Sharif would be allowed to consult his doctor in London, who carried out his heart surgery and more familiar with his condition better than doctors in Pakistan.