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
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
