ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ailing former premier Nawaz Sharif was scheduled to leave the country for medical treatment in the United Kingdom on Monday but uncertainty prevails as his name is yet to be cleared from the Exit Control List (ECL).
According to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, Sharif has been allowed by the government to avail medical treatment outside Pakistan. However, the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), is currently reviewing the decision to remove him from the no-fly list, which would then require endorsement from the interior ministry.
The thrice-time PM Sharif, 69, was released on bail last month from a seven-year sentence for corruption after repeated medical issues.
Sharif, who has dominated Pakistani politics for three decades, denies the corruption charges, claiming they are politically motivated.
He previously lived in exile in Saudi Arabia for seven years after his government was toppled in a bloodless military coup in 1999.
“All the arrangements for his [Nawaz Sharif’s] treatment abroad have been finalized, and we are now just waiting for the government to remove his name from the ECL [Exit Control List,” Raja Zafarul Haq, the chairman Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, told Arab News on Sunday.
Haq said Sharif’s younger brother and PMLN president, Shehbaz Sharif, and his personal doctor, Adnan Khan, would also travel with him to London.
Sharif was scheduled to leave the country at 9:05 am on Monday through a private airline but not enabled to catch his flight as his name is still on ECL.
On Friday, the Pakistani government said it had granted Sharif permission to travel abroad after Shehbaz requested the ministry of interior to remove the ex-premier’s name from the no-fly list.
“The Ministry of Interior has taken all necessary actions keeping in view the urgency of the matter as pleaded by Shehbaz Sharif in his request,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said doctors had recommended that Sharif be sent abroad for further examination.
“If that is what the medical treatment requires, the government has been positive,” Qureshi said in a Reuters interview. “The prime minister has said everything possible should be done to show his life is protected.”
“If their hands are clean, why should they be running away?” he said when asked about the possibility Sharif may seek a second period of exile.
“I hope he recovers. When he recovers, why should he be sticking around in London? There’s no logic, there’s no reason for that.”
