Pakistan: PML-N rules out Nawaz Sharif’s return from UK till “full recovery”

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 7 (ANI): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif has ruled out the return of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from the United Kingdom to the country until his “full recovery”.

Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks come days after Nawaz Sharif’s request for an extension in his visit visa has been rejected by the UK  government. According to the publication, Nawaz’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 request.

In a statement issued on Friday, Shehbaz, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, said that the Imran government had allowed Nawaz Sharif to leave Pakistan for treatment based on the reports of the government’s own medical board. “It is inhuman to do politics on the health of a three-time premier. The government machinery is bent upon defaming Nawaz Sharif for its politics, which is earning a bad name to the country,” Dawn quoted him as saying.

About his elder brother’s return to the country, Shehbaz said: “Nawaz Sharif will only return to Pakistan when he fully recovers and doctors in London allow him to travel (back to the country).” He added that he could legally stay in the UK till the decision on his appeal regarding visa extension. In 2018, accountability court Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik had convicted Nawaz in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills Company (ASCL) and Hill Metal Establishment (HME) reference and awarded him seven years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 billion and USD 25 million.

In 2019, after Nawaz was said by his doctors to be suffering from complicated cardiac disease and an immune system disorder that resulted in a dangerously low platelet count, his sentence in the Al Azizia reference was suspended by a two-member bench of the IHC comprising Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, for eight weeks on medical grounds, reported Geo News.

Since November 2019, Nawaz has been living in London after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment. Meanwhile, Pakistan Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed said that Nawaz’s passport — a diplomat passport owing to him being a former prime minister — had expired on February 16 and that he is “no longer a citizen of Pakistan”, Geo News reported. The interior minister said that Nawaz cannot travel anywhere with his expired Pakistani passport. “If Nawaz Sharif wishes to come to Pakistan, he can obtain a passport within 24 hours,” he added.

Rasheed said the embassy can only issue a passport for his return to Pakistan. He further stated that Pakistan has been trying to bring Nawaz back for a while but is unable to do so. However, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the UK home department stated in their response that Nawaz can appeal the decision with an immigration tribunal, reported Geo News.

She said Nawaz’s lawyers had therefore filed an appeal with the tribunal, which include his medical records. Marriyum stated that until the tribunal makes a decision, the home department’s orders will remain ineffective. (ANI)