LAHORE: Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s heart surgery at a London hospital has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic as he is a “high-risk” patient, his daughter said.
Sharif, 70, has been in the UK since November last after Lahore High Court granted him bail for four weeks on medical grounds and allowed him to travel abroad for treatment.
The three-time premier is now undergoing treatment in London for coronary artery disease.
“The surgery of PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif has been postponed because of coronavirus. Doctors say Sharif is a high-risk patient and all precautions have to be observed in the wake of Covid-19. His treatment continues and he needs your prayers,” his daughter Maryam Nawaz tweeted.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Saturday that Sharif has been at his home in London since the outbreak of the pandemic.
“The three-time premier will go ahead with his heart procedure once the COVID-19 issue is settled,” she said.
Earlier, Sharif’s physician Adnan Khan said in a tweet: “As a high-risk patient, former PM #NawazSharif’s Cardiac Catheterization/Coronary Intervention was postponed to be rescheduled at a later date amidst COVID19 Pandemic, as Public/Private Hospitals limited their admissions/procedures. Presently managed on aggressive medical therapy”
Last week, Pakistan’s anti-graft body — the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – issued arrest warrants for Sharif for not joining investigations after he was summoned time and again to record his statement in a land case involving Jang Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman.
According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials, Sharif illegally leased the land to the Jang Group editor-in-chief in 1986, when the three-time premier was the chief minister of Punjab province.
Rehman is in NAB custody on judicial remand.
The Lahore High Court in October last year granted bail to Sharif on medical grounds for four weeks, allowing the Punjab government to extend it further in the light of his medical reports.
The Islamabad High Court had also granted bail to Sharif in the Al Azizia Mills corruption case, in which the former prime minister was serving a seven-year jail term, clearing his way to travel abroad for medical treatment. (agencies)
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