Nawaz Sharif Urges Court To Allow Him To Go Abroad For Medical Treatment

Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court to allow him to go abroad for medical treatment.

Sharif, 69, serving seven-year jail term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail since December last year, was given six-week bail on medical grounds on March 26 by the top court in Pakistan to seek treatment within the country. 

His counsel Khawaja Haris filed a review petition in the Supreme Court, requesting that the bail order be amended to allow the former premier to go abroad for treatment.

Sharif's petition maintained that he is suffering from multiple heart-related ailments which could prove life threatening if proper medication was not provided.

The plea said Sharif was recommended by doctors in Pakistan to seek treatment from his regular physicians in the UK.

The petitioner also asked the court to rectify an error in the written order of March 26, which omitted verbal order that Sharif should apply for bail extension to the Islamabad High Court if he needed that.

The petition also said Sharif has been going through "extreme stressful circumstances in the last two years which multiplied manifold with his wife's terminal illness and untimely demise".

Sharif, thrice the prime minister of Pakistan, had been in jail following his conviction in Al-Azizia corruption case in line with the Supreme Court's July 2017 verdict that disqualified him and removed him from premiership.