Addl Prosecutor General of NAB told court authority has no objection to bail on medical grounds; Ex-premier experienced angina attack in hospital: Dr Mahmood
Staff Reporter
Islamabad/Lahore
The Islamabad High Court on Saturday approved the interim bail of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds until Tuesday in the Al-Azizia reference.
The petition was heard by a two-member divisional bench that included IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani. PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif had approached the court for an early hearing regarding the disposition of the former premier’s sentence.
During the hearing, the court accepted the bail plea until Tuesday against two bail bonds worth Rs2 million, asking the federal and Punjab government to send a concrete answer related to the plea.
During the hearing, Additional Prosecutor General of the National Accountability Bureau said that the authority has no objection to the bail of Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds. Following the decision, the PML-N submitted the bail bonds in the case.
PML-N’s Marriyum Aurangzeb thanked people for praying for Nawaz Sharif. Meanwhile, a large number of PML-N workers gathered outside the Services Hospital in Lahore and celebrated the decision announced by the IHC.
During the hearing, the IHC chief justice said that if the government opposes the bail plea then the court will dismiss the petition for Nawaz’s bail. “During this time period, if anything happens to Nawaz Sharif then the government and the NAB will be responsible,” remarked the court’s top judge.
He further said that ministers have been trying to place the entire matter on the court’s jurisdiction, which is why ‘a yes or no’ answer is needed.
Following which, the AAG NAB responded that the federal government has nothing to do with this entire matter and they ‘cannot take any responsibility’.
The court then ordered the AAG to take clear directions from Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, while hearing the case earlier, remarked that the bench was set to hear the case on Tuesday. He added that the provincial government is empowered to dispose off a prisoner’s sentence, therefore the issue should have never come before the court.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked why was there an urgency in holding an early hearing into the case. To this, the lawyer of the petitioner informed the court that the former premier had suffered a minor heart attack, and his health had further deteriorated after Friday.
After a brief initial hearing, the court had issued notices to the Punjab chief minister, NAB chairman and other parties in the case. The court also stated that the parties should appoint a representative and directed them to appear before the court later in the day. Meanwhile, the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif suffered angina pain on Saturday morning while undergoing treatment at a Lahore hospital, said Services Institute of Medical Sciences Principal Prof Dr Mahmood Ayaz.
The doctor refuted reports that the PML-N leader had suffered a heart attack, reports a private news channel. Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid held a press conference in the afternoon during which she revealed that Sharif had also experienced angina pain the night of October 24.
“Cardiologists were on hand at that time and they conducted some tests. According to an enzymes test, he had experienced a minor heart attack that night,” she said.
She said that owing to timely treatment, the echocardiography done the following day showed “no signs of any sort of damage to the heart whatsoever”.
The health minister further said that today’s blood pressure and fasting blood sugar tests show that both indicators were controlled as compared to fluctuations in the past few days.
She said that Nawaz’s platelets, which had experienced a drastic drop and owing to which he had been admitted to the hospital, are now at 45,000 per microliter. Rashid said that of the platelet composition, 35 per cent are “young platelets which indicates that his bone marrow is functioning well”. While speaking to reporters at the hospital, Dr Ayaz said that Sharif’s platelet count is now rising.
