After weeks of political haggling, convicted ex-PM leaves Pakistan for treatment

LAHORE: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accompanied by his brother and personal doctor, left Pakistan on Tuesday morning for treatment in the UK.
The ailing ex-premier departed on a Qatar Airways air ambulance from the Hajj terminal of Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore at around 10:30 a.m. local time, in the company of his younger brother PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, personal physician Adnan Khan, and five other members of his medical team.
“Mian Nawaz Sharif has flown for Doha and then will go to London for medical treatment. Senior party leaders saw him off at the airport,” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab spokeswoman Azma Zahid Bokhari confirmed to Arab News.
Sharif’s mother Shamim Akhtar and daughter Maryam Nawaz said their goodbyes at the family’s Jati Umrah residence and did not go to the airport.
Sharif received high doses of steroids to be able to travel, PML-N spokeswoman Marriyum Aurangzeb told reporters, bemoaning the government’s delayed decision to allow the journey.
“Had he gone 15 days earlier, he would have been treated earlier. That could help his recovery. He is being taken to Doha where medical tests will be conducted,” she said, adding that if Sharif’s doctors decide so, he may be taken for treatment to the US or another country, after his hospitalization in London.
The longest-serving former premier requires genetic tests to identify the causes of his ailment. Such tests are not available in Pakistan.
PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq told Arab News that in the absence of Sharif, the party’s affairs will be run by its senior leadership, which will remain in consultation with the former premier and his brother.
According to political analysts, however, the ex-PM himself will remain in charge of PML-N, which he owns.
“The point of view of Mian Nawaz Sharif will prevail in the party’s affairs, since he is alive and the party belongs to him, so does the vote bank,” senior political analyst Salim Bokhari told Arab News.
Similar views were expressed by Ch. Khadim Hussain of Daily Pakistan, who said that the party’s voters and workers believe only in Sharif himself. “It will not make any change whether he is in the country or away.”
On Saturday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) allowed Sharif to leave Pakistan for four weeks to undergo medical treatment. The court also ordered to remove his name from the no-fly list for four weeks, and struck down the government’s condition of submitting an indemnity bond of Rs 7 billion.
The court’s permission was issued after Sharif and his brother submitted affidavits that they will return to Pakistan.
The three-time former prime minister has been serving a prison term on corruption charges, but was granted bail for eight weeks on medical grounds. The court, however, allowed government officials to obtain updates on Sharif’s health.
Last month, Sharif was rushed to the hospital from the Kot Lakhpat penitentiary in Lahore after his personal physician raised concerns over his deteriorating health and dangerously low platelet count.