Deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was shifted from the Kot Lakhpat prison to Services Hospital on Saturday. A medical board headed by Dr Ayaz Mehmood will conduct medical examination of Nawaz Sharif at the hospital. In the Services Hospital, a special room has been allocated for Nawaz Sharif. Earlier, the Punjab Home Department had accorded permission to shift the incarcerated Nawaz Sharif to Services Hospital as per recommendations of a medical board.
The sources claimed that a team of cardiologists, which examined Nawaz Sharif, had recommended shifting of former prime minister to a hospital where there is a kidney specialist and experts of diabetes. "Nawaz suffers from diabetes and there is some stents blockage," the sources said, adding: "Nawaz is also learnt to have stage 3 chronic kidney disease which is very severe."
AFP adds: Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz confirmed the news on Twitter. Sharif has been facing multiple health issues. He was transferred from jail to hospital last July over an irregular electrocardiogram reading during his first prison term, when a graft court sentenced him to ten years in a case revolving around family properties in London.
He was released in September after another court suspended his sentence pending an appeal hearing - but was again sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption in a second case. Sharif has denied all the charges against him and claims he is being targeted by the country's powerful security establishment. The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from politics for life over the allegations last year, and directed an anti-corruption body to investigate three different charges regarding his family's properties and businesses.
Sharif has been prime minister three times but it has been a rough ride. He was first expelled from office in 1993 on suspicion of corruption. He won an election in 1997, only to be ousted and exiled after a military coup in 1999.
He returned to Pakistan in 2007 and took power once more in 2013 until his ousting last year. Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawaz Sharif and opposition leader in the National Assembly, is also facing charges of corruption. The PML-N party lost the election on July 25 to the rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led by former cricket hero Imran Khan.