LAHORE: A top Pakistani court on Friday granted permission to the country’s ailing opposition leader, who has been charged with corruption, to travel abroad for medical treatment.
The Lahore High Court ruled that Shahbaz Sharif may travel abroad from May 8 to July 3. Sharif had petitioned the court, saying he is a cancer survivor who now needs treatment outside of Pakistan.
The development drew criticism from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, which said it will explore legal options to stop Sharif from leaving.
Sharif faces corruption charges in three separate court cases. He heads the opposition bloc in parliament and leads his brother’s Pakistan Muslim League party after Nawaz Sharif, a three-time prime minister was disqualified from office.
The ex-premier and elder Sharif, convicted of corruption, lives in exile in London. He was released from prison in 2019 on bail to seek medical treatment abroad but never returned home. Islamabad last December started the process to reach an extradition treaty with Britain that would pave the way for the UK to hand over Nawaz Sharif.
Shahbaz Sharif was released on bail last month on a court order, about seven months after he was arrested by an anti-graft body over alleged involvement in money laundering.
Angered over Friday’s order, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry described the ruling as a “joke” that he said could help the younger Sharif escape the law like his brother did.
There was no immediate comment from Khan, who on Friday left on a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia to boost economic ties with the kingdom.
Pakistan allows indicted opposition leader to travel abroad
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Pakistan allows indicted opposition leader to travel abroad
- The country’s information minister described the ruling as a ‘joke,’ saying it could help Shahbaz Sharif escape the law like his brother did
- Shahbaz Sharif was released on bail last month on a court order, about seven months after he was arrested by an anti-graft body
Pakistani students stuck in Afghanistan permitted to go home
- The border between the countries has been shut since Oct. 12
- Worries remain for students about return after the winter break
JALALABAD: After three months, some Pakistani university students who were stuck in Afghanistan due to deadly clashes between the neighboring countries were “permitted to go back home,” Afghan border police said Monday.
“The students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest Pakistan) who were stuck on this side of the border, only they were permitted to cross and go to their homes,” said Abdullah Farooqi, Afghan border police spokesman.
The border has “not reopened” for other people, he said.
The land border has been shut since October 12, leaving many people with no affordable option of making it home.
“I am happy with the steps the Afghan government has taken to open the road for us, so that my friends and I will be able to return to our homes” during the winter break, Anees Afridi, a Pakistani medical student in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, told AFP.
However, worries remain for the hundreds of students about returning to Afghanistan after the break ends.
“If the road is still closed from that side (Pakistan), we will be forced to return to Afghanistan for our studies by air.”
Flights are prohibitively expensive for most, and smuggling routes also come at great risk.
Anees hopes that by the time they return for their studies “the road will be open on both sides through talks between the two governments.”
