LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has granted medical bail to jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, days after the ex-premier was moved to hospital suffering from a serious immune disorder.
A bench of the high court granted the bail to Sharif in a high-profile case involving corruption in a sugar mill, local media reported on Friday.
The verdict came after Dr. Ayaz Mehmood, the chairman of a board constituted by the Punjab government to diagnose Sharif, told the court that the three-time prime minister was suffering from acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder that destroys the platelets in the body.
Friday’s order does not mean Sharif, 69, is free to walk. He is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence after his conviction for corruption in a steel mill case last year. He has appealed that verdict and denies the charges, alleging that they are politically motivated. The Islamabad High Court will hear a bail appeal in that case on Tuesday.
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The government denies that the legal action against Sharif and other members of his family, including daughter Maryam Nawaz, who is also in detention for suspected graft, is politically motivated.
On Monday, Sharif was taken to a hospital in Lahore. Members of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party have claimed since that his health was deteriorating and that the government was delaying treatment.
Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is the president of the PMLN party, filed an application before the Lahore High Court that the ex-PM be released on medical grounds and allowed full treatment in Pakistan or abroad.
When the court first heard the bail application on Friday morning, Dr. Mehmood said that doctors were unsure why Sharif’s platelet count was so low. The court asked him to reappear at 12:30 p.m. with the board’s full report.
“The problem diagnosed is acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura, that is a bleeding disorder that results in destroying platelets in the body,” Dr. Mehmood told the court.
Sharif’s counsel, Ashtar Ausaf Ali, argued that the former PM’s health was deteriorating and that his life was in danger. The court granted him bail on medical grounds.
Many in Sharif’s family and party have accused the government of delaying his treatment as part of a campaign against him and the PMLN.
The government denies that the legal action against Sharif and other members of his family, including daughter Maryam Nawaz, who is also in detention for suspected graft, is politically motivated.
