Doctors bar Nawaz Sharif from travelling, LHC told

LAHORE: Doctors have barred former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif from travelling, says fresh medical reports of the leader which were submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday.

The three-page report of the former prime minister which his counsel Amjad Pervez submitted to the LHC, reads that doctors have told him to avoid going to public places in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

The report further says that since Nawaz is suffering from multiple diseases, therefore, he needs to exercise more caution and stay at his London residence where he is being properly looked after.

Only six days back, on August 5, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had made an appeal to the UK immigration tribunal against the British authorities’ decision to turn down his visa extension request, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said.

The development came on the same day the British government had rejected his request. The former prime minister through his lawyer approached the immigration tribunal to get his stay extended, the PML-N official said. “Nawaz Sharif can stay in the UK till the tribunal’s decision,” she added.

The PML-N supremo’s six-month visit visa had expired, after which he had put in a request with the UK Home Office to grant him an extension on health grounds. The immigration department, however, denied the extension.

Sharif, the 71-year-old supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz who was ousted from power in 2017 by the Supreme Court on corruption charges, is in London since November 2019, after the federal government gave him rare permission to get abroad for medical treatment.

The incumbent government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been seeking repatriation of the former three-time prime minister from the United Kingdom as he is convicted in Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption cases.

Back in March this year, the Ministry of Interior had refused to extend the passport of Sharif as he had been declared an absconder by courts in Pakistan.