The apex court was requested to release former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on bail without specification of any condition, as treatment recommended by doctors unequivocally show that treatment as well as full recovery is not possible within six weeks.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, on March 26 had granted bail to the ex-PM by suspending his sentence in the Al-Azizia Mills case for six weeks, which started from the date of release. The court ordered that during this period the petitioner shall not leave or be allowed to leave the country.
"The bail shall automatically stand cancelled upon expiry of six weeks period whereupon he shall surrender to custody voluntarily failing which he shall be retaken into custody." The court has made it clear that surrender to custody by the petitioner shall not include surrendering before a court with an application for bail.
Khawaja Haris on Thursday, on behalf of the ex-PM, filed an application under Article 188 of Constitution to review 26th March order. Haris contended that the order dated 26-03-2019 presumes that on the expiry of six weeks the ex-PM shall inevitably regain health sufficiently to go back to jail. He submitted that this presumption is not based on any factual or legal premise therefore it merits to be reviewed.
It mentioned that the court being cognizant of the uncertainty of the nature of the prospective medical treatment of the petitioner, had, while orally announcing the order in open court, read out the terms on which the petitioner was being released on bail upon suspension of his sentence, one of which was to the effect that in case the petitioner required any extension in his bail, he could apply for it to the Islamabad High Court. However, in the written order this portion of the order stands omitted. He submitted that this may be due to a typographical error, but nevertheless remains an error apparent on the face of the record.
Haris submitted that since the release, a special medical board comprising four doctors was constituted at Sharif Medical City on 27-03-2019. The board after examining the petitioner on 28-03-2019 had recommended various tests. It inter alia advised MRI and MRA of head and neck, cardiac stress MRI, for which letters were sent to Agha Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Tabba Institute, Karachi, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, and Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, to seek independent opinion of various experts in their respective fields.
Haris informed the court that diagnosis was made and the examination was conducted, and treatment so far administered as well as treatment recommended by the doctors unequivocally show that the treatment of Nawaz Sharif as well as full recovery is not possible within six weeks. He pleaded that the petitioner merits to be released on bail without specification of any such condition, and 26th March order be review accordingly.
He told the court that in the opinion of the Pakistani and foreign consultants and the experts, it is feasible option that the former premier is treated by the same set of medical practitioners who had been treating him earlier in the UK.
A division bench of Islamabad High Court on 25-02-2019 had dismissed the writ petition of the ex-PM for suspension of sentence and his release on bail on medical grounds.
The ex-PM was convicted on 24-12-2018 by the Accountability Court, Islamabad, under section 9(a)(v) read with section 14(c) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and sentenced for 7 years imprisonment.
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