ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Friday requested the Supreme Court to set aside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment rejecting his bail plea in Al-Azizia corruption reference. Nawaz filed an application with the apex court through his counsel Khawaja Haris under Article 185(3) of the Constitution for leave to appeal against the IHC’s February 25 judgment in the reference.
An Islamabad High Court bench, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, had dismissed Nawaz’s petition seeking bail and suspension of his seven-year sentence on medical grounds.
The Accountability Court-II sentenced Nawaz to seven years in prison and Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million fine in the corruption reference on December 24, 2018. He made the NAB chairman, Judge Accountability Court-II Arshad Malik as well as the Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore superintendent as respondents.
Nawaz prayed the apex court to set aside the IHC judgment of February 25, 2019 with further prayer that execution of the sentence passed by the Accountability Court-II in Al-Azizia corruption reference may kindly be suspended and he may be released on bail during the pendency of his criminal appeal pending with the Islamabad High Court.
He contended that the impugned judgment was in total violation of his fundamental right to life as guaranteed by Article 9 of the Constitution. “Notwithstanding his conviction and his consequent imprisonment in jail, I retain the right to have my medical treatment conducted by the practitioner of my own choice,” Nawaz contended.
He questioned whether the diagnosis recorded in each of the reports was submitted by the Special Medical Boards of various hospitals that he was suffering from Recurrent Angina, Ischemic Heart Disease, Coronary Artery disease, Diabetes, Hypertension with unanimous recommendations that he require 24-hour round the clock monitoring for managing his ailments.
He submitted that in any case when the Special Medical Boards which had examined him had categorically and unambiguously recommended that he needed round the clock medical/cardiac monitoring and or that considering his medical condition, he needed hospitalization for controlling his diabetes and his hypertension as well as for preventing damage to his heart and further deterioration of his 3rd stage chronic kidney disease, this by itself was sufficient to establish that his continued incarceration in jail was inevitably detrimental to his life.
“The IHC Division bench of Islamabad High Court had totally misconstrued and thereby misapplied the principles laid down by this august court in the cases relied upon by it while rejecting his prayer for suspension of sentence,” Nawaz contended.
He submitted that the order passed by the IHC division bench was in utter derogation of the principles governing grant of bail/suspension of sentence laid down by this august court in the judgments cited before the Division bench.
Similarly, he contended that the division bench committed a jurisdictional error in misreading the record and thereby basing its judgment on an erroneous assumption that he was receiving best possible medical treatment in the hospital, while the fact is that, as per the medical reports submitted in the case, his treatment had not yet been started rather these reports can only pertain to the diagnosis showing that he is suffering from various ailments which collectively constitute a risk of stroke, an alarming degree of threat of irreversible damage to his heart, potential threat to further deterioration of his 3rd stage chronic kidney disease, and aggravation of his T2 Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension.
