The Islamabad High Court (IHC) resumed the hearing of a bail appeal filed by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif for former premier Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia case on Tuesday.
A two-member bench,comprised of Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, is hearing the appeal.
Nawaz’s personal physician Dr Adnan Khan, PML-N leaders including Ahsan Iqbal, Pervez Rashid and Raja Zafarul Haq, and National Accountability Bureau’s legal team arrived in the courtroom before the hearing.
Last week, Shehbaz had appealed the the IHC to grant bail to Nawaz in the Al Azizia case — in which nawaz had been sentenced to seven years in prisoN — on medical grounds. . A two-member bench of the IHC had heard the bail petition on Friday and after questioning Services Hospital Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Saleem Cheema, who is part of the medical board treating Nawaz, the high court had adjourned hearing until Tuesday.
On Saturday, however, Shehbaz filed another petition in IHC, requesting the court to hear the bail appeal sooner owing to Nawaz’s “extremely critical condition”. It said that the petition, which was heard on Friday, did not mention that on the night of October 24, Nawaz had suffered an angina attack “as a direct result of the medicine being administered to him to enhance his platelets”.
During the course of the hearing, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had remarked that the request for bail on medical grounds should not have been filed with the court to begin with, as the government has the authority to decide on such a matter. He further said that the court will throw the petition out if the government opposes the bail request.
“However, if something happens to Nawaz Sharif in this time, the blame will be on NAB and the government,” he had said. The interior secretary, who was present in the court during Saturday’s hearing, urged the court to “base it] judgment on the merits of the case”.
The high court granted an interim bail to Nawaz on medical grounds which expired today (October 29).
Shehbaz had also filed a bail appeal for Nawaz in the ongoing Chaudhry Sugar Mills case in the Lahore High Court last week and the latter was granted bail on medical grounds.
Medical condition
The former premier was taken to the Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) last week after his personal physician raised an alarm about his deteriorating health.
On October 22, doctors at the hospital had termed Nawaz’s condition as ‘serious’ despite the transfusion of three mega units of platelets within hours of his admission.
According to the medical tests carried out, the platelet count of the former premier had “dropped from 16,000 to a critical level of 2,000” when he was brought to hospital late on Monday night, prompting the medical board members to go for “immediate transfusion of the platelets to save his life”, one of the board members had said.
After a struggle of three days, a six-member medical board, headed by Services Hospital Principal Ayaz Mahmood, on Thursday diagnosed the reason for Nawaz’s health.
“It is acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder, in which the immune system destroys platelets,” a board member had told Dawn. He said the treatment was given to the former prime minister in the light of his diagnosis. “We are hopeful that his condition will improve in a few days,” he added.
Comments are closed.