ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, currently serving out a seven-year jail term for graft, was on Saturday moved from prison to a hospital in Lahore on the recommendation of a medical board.
“I have just been told that MNS [Mian Nawaz Sharif] has been taken to the hospital,” his daughter and likely political heir Maryam Nawaz said in a Twitter post. Sharif is being held at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail over corrupt practices involving the setting up of a steel mill.
In recent weeks, Maryam and other members of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party have said his health had deteriorated sharply and urged the government to allow him to be moved to a specialised facility. Party stalwarts have also claimed that authorities were not allowing Sharif's personal physician to visit him, a charge the government denies.
I have just been told that MNS has been taken to the hospital.
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 2, 2019
A six-member medical board with two specialists from the army examined Sharif at Kot Lakhpat prison on Wednesday after doctors suggested he had cardiac problems and needed to be hospitalised. The board concluded that the former prime minister was "suffering from multiple health issues that need immediate and specialised healthcare at a facility where care for multiple and complicated diseases is available."
