No relief for Sharif as Pakistan court rejects bail plea in corruption case

A court in Pakistan on Monday rejected the bail plea on medical grounds of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently serving a seven-year jail term in Lahore for corruption.

"The doctors advised angiography of Sharif but he refused to have the procedure in the Jinnah Hospital," the official told PTI.

"We have shifted Sharif to jail primarily on his request," he said and added that the Sharif family was interested to get his angiography done from London after bail.

Sharif, 69, who was sentenced in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case in December, made the request after multiple complaints of chest pain and other health issues. He has been serving the jail term in the Kot Lakhpat jail.

A two-member Islamabad High Court bench comprising Justices Aamer Farooq and Mohsin Akhtar Kayani "dismissed" his bail application.

In its decision, the court said that Sharif could not be given bail on health grounds as he was already being treated at a hospital.

Sharif was being treated at the Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, where he was shifted a few weeks ago.

Several leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif were present inside the court when the verdict was announced.

According to a Punjab government official, the three-time prime minister asked the doctors to shift him back to jail from hospital after his bail petition was rejected.

"The doctors advised angiography of Sharif but he refused to have the procedure in the Jinnah Hospital," the official told PTI. "We have shifted Sharif to jail primarily on his request," he said and added that the Sharif family was interested to get his angiography done from London after bail.

The state home department spokesman also confirmed that Sharif was sent back to jail on his "wish".

Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, said he was consulting lawyers to challenge the high court verdict in the Supreme Court.

"We are disappointed by the decision because different panels diagnosed the disease (of Sharif) and recommended treatment. But we accept the verdict and will explore more forums to get a remedy," Abbasi told reporters after the verdict.

Asif said "we will go for appeal against the verdict" which will be filed in the Supreme Court.

Dozens of PML-N supporters, who were present outside the court, raised slogans against the verdict. Additional police and paramilitary personnel were deployed around the court to maintain law and order.

Sharif was sentenced to seven years in jail in December by an accountability court and he was sent to Kot Lakhpat jail to serve the sentence.

Last month, he filed the bail application through his counsel Khawaja Haris for bail on medical reasons as he developed heart-related medical complications in jail.

The court last week heard the counsel and lawyers of the anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and reserved the verdict for Fenruary 25.

Three corruption cases - Avenfield properties, Flagship investment and Al-Azizia steel mills - were registered against the Sharif family by the NAB in 2017 following a judgment by the Supreme Court that disqualified Sharif in the Panama Papers case in 2017.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Avenfiled case in July 2018 which was related to his properties in London. Later he was given bail in September.

In December, the accountability court convicted him in the Al-Azizia case but acquitted him in the Flagship reference.

Sharif's daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were also convicted and sent to jail in the Avenfield case but granted bail along with Sharif.

His two sons – Hasan and Hussain – were named in all the three cases but never appeared before the court after which they were declared fugitives.