LAHORE: A special medical board, which was constituted for overseeing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s health, on Friday recommended that the former premier should be shifted to a hospital.
According to details, the recommendation came after the board conducted Nawaz’s detailed medical examination at Kot Lakhpat Jail and said that considering his heart issues, he should be shifted to a hospital so he can be treated with better facilities. Following the examination, the board sent the report to the Home Department.
The board, which was formed on January 25 by the Punjab government, comprises cardiac experts from Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC), Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC).
The six-member special medical board comprises Dr Hamid Sharif Khan, Dr Muhammad Talha Bin Nazir, Dr Shahid Hameed, Dr Sajad Ahmed, Brigadier Abdul Hameed Siddiqui and Brigadier Azmat Hayat.
During the examination, the panel had conducted blood work and heard the former premier’s complains regarding his cardiac illness. The Punjab Medical Board determined the course of further treatment after receiving recommendations from the panel.
Nawaz is currently serving seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail after he was convicted by an accountability court in the Al Aziza corruption reference case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Earlier, Nawaz Sharif, while meeting with the PML-N leaders, was critical of how Mamnoon Hussain was treated at the prison. Nawaz Sharif was quoted as saying: “former prime ministers have been mistreated in Pakistan but this is the first time a former president has been treated this way.” He had criticised jail authorities for searching the former president from head to toe, saying that Mamnoon is an elderly person but he was taken off the car and made to walk to the prison.
“No other country treats its former presidents like this,” he had said.
When PML-N leaders inquired after Nawaz Sharif’s health, he said that he had been told by the doctors that he has enlarged heart. “I told doctors that I have a big heart and am a big-hearted person.”
