Nawaz Sharif still a heart patient, LHC told

LAHORE/LONDON: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif still has heart problems and needs continuous monitoring, says a fresh medical report submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday, just days before his expected arrival to the country. 

The PMLN leader was allowed by the high court in November 2019 to go abroad on health grounds after his medical reports revealed that he needed urgent treatment.

In the medical report filed by Nawaz’s legal team, Professor Carlo di Mario of London’s Royal Brompton Hospital stated that he has been treating “this patient with previous CABG, multiple angioplasties and ablations, throughout his stay in London in the past years.”

The cardiologist noted that they first tried medical treatment, strengthening his antianginal therapy. Professor Carlo di Mario — who is a consultant in Interventional Cardiology — cited Nawaz Sharif’s persistent anginal symptoms and the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic behind the delay in his safe return to Pakistan.

“When his symptoms worsened and a large area of ischaemia was confirmed in a Rubidium PET myocardial perfusion scan, we decided to repeat an angioplasty. This treatment was performed on November 2022 and targeted an occluded left circumflex artery.”

It required rotational atherectomy, intravascular lithotripsy, multiple stents deployed and expanded under IVUS guidance,” the report stated.

It added that the elder Sharif still has some residual anginal symptoms and suggested continuous monitoring.

“…….due to diffuse distal coronary disease in a patient with diabetes and multiple other comorbidities that would require frequent follow-up investigations both in London and Pakistan.”

The LHC had granted Nawaz permission for medical treatment after which he proceeded to the UK and has been staying in London since then. The court had directed him to submit medical reports on a regular basis.

PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif had announced last month that his elder brother will return to Pakistan on October 21 ending his four-year self-imposed exile.

Meanwhile talking to reporters in London on Friday, Nawaz said said some supporters of PTI have been staging protests against him in London for four years but miserably failed to achieve anything other than creating a bad image of Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif was speaking at Stanhope House, party’s de facto London headquarters, to mark his final day in office here, ahead of his return to Pakistan in around two weeks. Nawaz Sharif invited journalists from all TV channels for an informal chat and thanked them for their coverage over his four years of exile in London. Nawaz had arrived in London in November 2019.

“I am thankful to all the journalists from all platforms, who wrote for me and against me. Those who worked against me did so out of compulsions and channels’ policies; I am thankful to all of you,” Nawaz Sharif said.

“Today is my last day in office, then I will leave,” he said. This was Nawaz Sharif’s last Jumma in the London office as he will be leaving for Saudi Arabia before next Friday where he will spend a week and offer Umrah with the members of his family. He will then arrive in Dubai and from there he will leave for Pakistan. It is from this office near Hyde Park – managed by his son Hasan Nawaz Sharif for his property business – that Nawaz Sharif has run his party affairs for nearly four years and held important meetings.

Nawaz Sharif said journalism has an important role in any society and that people give importance to the opinions of journalists. He added, “Journalists should refrain from backbiting and slander. Criticism should be for the sake of reform, not to settle personal grudges and run campaigns for ulterior motives.”

Nawaz Sharif pointed out that some media platforms had run false and defamatory campaigns against him over the years and violated all norms and ethics of journalism.

He commented that some supporters of PTI were involved in using foul language, harassment and hooliganism on London’s streets for personal ratings and miserably failed to achieve anything, other than bringing a bad name to Pakistan. He said such people should go to Pakistan and stage protests there.

He recalled how former information minister Marrium Aurangzeb and other PMLN women were surrounded in London and abused by PTI supporters. He said the scenes that came out of the coffee shop – where Marriyum Aurangzeb was heckled – exposed the ugly side of these people. “What has been achieved by the protests of some Pakistanis here in the last four years? Nothing,” he said.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said that now the question should not be repeated whether Nawaz Sharif is coming or not.

Shahbaz said: “I reiterated that Nawaz is coming, if Allah approves; he will be in Pakistan on October 21.” He said that party’s legal experts have given the PMLN Quaid green signal to return.

The PMLN president said that he tried desperately to solve people’s problems in 16 months, adding that what would have happened if Pakistan had gone bankrupt, petrol pumps would have been empty, medicines would have disappeared and daily items would not be available.

He said that if the country had defaulted, millions of people would have been unemployed, we wanted to give cheap petrol to motorcyclists, we talked to the IMF for cheap petrol for motorcyclists, but this demand was not accepted by the Fund.

He told the people that there was no need to panic and worry, good times were coming.

He further said that whatever decision is taken it should be for a fair and transparent election, adding that accountability should be for everyone and it should be visible and people believe in it.

To a question, Shehbaz said that in the 75 years of Pakistan’s history, accountability was only restricted to politicians and called for doing it across the board.

The former premier asserted that if the PMLN voted to power, Nawaz Sharif would become the prime minister of Pakistan.

Talking to the media in Islamabad, PMLN leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar expressed hope that the upcoming IMF economic review would be successful, paving the way for Pakistan to receive a substantial installment of $700 million.

Dar stated, “The real value of the dollar is Rs250,” and mentioned his previous stance from September 2022 that the dollar rate should be less than 200. The PMLN leader said that Nawaz Sharif’s return was not part of any guarantee.