Ex Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif ‘critically unwell’, says doctor

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is “critically unwell” as he continues to receive treatment for an undiagnosed blood platelet disorder while in custody on corruption charges, his doctor said.

Sharif, 69, is being treated at a government-run hospital in Lahore, where he was granted indefinite bail last week by a court after being jailed last year on corruption charges.

An Islamabad court will rule on granting him bail in a separate corruption case on Tuesday.

“Former PM Nawaz Sharif, critically unwell, is fighting the battle for his health [and] life,” said Adnan Khan, the Sharif family’s personal physician on Tuesday. 

Khan is part of the six-member government-constituted medical team that is treating the three-time former prime minister. He said Sharif was suffering from a consistently low blood platelet count, while also having suffered a non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, a type of heart attack.

He further said Sharif was suffering from deteriorating kidney function and poor blood sugar.

“In a paradoxical catch 22 situation […] establishing a definitive diagnosis [and] subsequent management poses considerable risk to Nawaz Sharif’s fragile [and] unstable health,” he said.

Last week, Pakistan Muslim League party (PML-N) leaders accused the government of having denied Sharif humane conditions and medical care while he was in prison.

The government denied the allegations and, on Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan directed authorities to provide Sharif “the best possible healthcare”.

Sharif was dismissed from office in 2017 by the country’s Supreme Court, which ruled that he had lied on a parliamentary wealth declaration and ordered authorities to prosecute him for corruption. 

In July last year, he returned to the country following a conviction in one of three corruption cases filed against him. He was convicted in a second case in December and is serving a seven-year sentence. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) continues to investigate the third case, relating to a family-owned sugar mill.

Sharif’s latest health crisis comes at a time when his party is backing an anti-government protest march led by the right-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party. On Tuesday, protesters entered the country’s central Punjab province, promising to march in the capital Islamabad by later in the week.