SHARIF MAY FLY TO UK FOR TREATMENT

Pakistan's ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has heeded doctors' advice and given in to his family's request to fly to London for the treatment of his diseases, a media report said on Friday.

The development comes a day after it was reported that the 69-year-old PML (N) supremo may travel to London for further treatment along with his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif.

Sharif was shifted to his Jati Umra Raiwind residence in Lahore on Wednesday after his two-week stay at a Pakistani hospital for treatment of multiple diseases. He was admitted to the Services Hospital in Lahore on October 22 from Pakistan's anti-graft body's custody after his platelets dropped to a critical low level of 2,000.

"Nawaz Sharif has finally agreed to go to London after the doctors told him categorically that they had already exhausted all medical treatment [options] available in Pakistan and going abroad is the only option left," a Sharif family member told the Dawn newspaper.

He said Sharif might leave for London this week if his name was removed from the Exit Control List by the government.

"Though Mr Sharif was not ready to go abroad after the recommendations of the medical board of the Services Hospital and the medics of the Sharif Medical City and the 'request' of his family members, he has finally agreed," the report quoted the member of the Sharif family as saying.

He said Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz would not go with her father as she had surrendered her passport to the Lahore High Court as surety against the bail granted to her in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption case.

"At the moment Nawaz Sharif's health matters more as he is fighting for his life. Maryam Nawaz may explore the option of going to London to look after her father later," he added.