Sharif allowed to go abroad for treatment
PML-N LEADERS CLAIM EX-PM WILL NOT SEEK EXILE FOR SECOND TIME
Pakistan will allow Nawaz Sharif to leave the country for medical treatment in the United Kingdom, its foreign minister said on Thursday, though he warned the former prime minister against seeking a second period of exile to escape corruption charges.
“Doctors are recommending that he perhaps needs to go abroad for further examination,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi told Reuters in an interview.
“If that is what the medical treatment requires, the government has been positive. The prime minister has said everything possible should be done to show his life is protected.” Three-time PM Sharif, 69, was released on bail last month from a seven-year sentence for corruption after repeated medical issues.
Sharif, who has dominated Pakistani politics for three decades, denies the corruption charges, claiming they are politically motivated.
He previously lived in exile in Saudi Arabia for seven years after being toppled by the Pakistan military in 2000, though Qureshi urged Sharif to return to complete his sentence. “If their hands are clean, why should they be running away?” he said of the possibility Sharif may seek a second period of exile.
“I hope he recovers. When he recovers, why should he be sticking around in London? There’s no logic, there’s no reason for that.” Sharif’s party, the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz, declined to comment on Qureshi’s remarks.
Leaving for London?
Meanwhile, Geo News reported Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif will take his brother Nawaz to London for treatment tomorrow.