Limited bail after Nawaz started battling for life

ISLAMABAD: Deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has to undergo a long ordeal and spend a long time, forcefully arguing in superior courts through his counsel, to secure bail on health grounds, and he has been granted a limited release only after he has landed in an extremely critical condition in which he is fighting for life like never before.

He is unlikely to approach the Punjab government for extension of the release period after the end of the eight-week bail given by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

His lead lawyer Khawaja Haris also made it clear during the proceedings that it would not be advisable to forward the matter to the government which is "utterly against the Sharifs". A judge then remarked that the prime minister and chief minister do not belong to a party but to the entire country and province. However, Haris pointed out that the Attorney General had even objected to the interim bail granted to Nawaz Sharif by the IHC. "We have come to the court. Kindly decide the matter in accordance with the law.”

This is the second time that a limited bail has been given to Nawaz Sharif on health grounds. Previously, the Supreme Court had granted him six-week bail on March 26 that ended on May 7. Before the conclusion of this period, the former prime minister had knocked at the door of the apex court for review of its order and extend the bail but it was refused saying that the earlier period was consumed only in medical tests.

If Nawaz Sharif’s health did not improve or went down further, he, instead of requesting the government, will again come to the IHC for extension of the bail. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal declared that come what may the ex-premier would never request the government for his release for health reasons. The IHC also noted that the federal and provincial governments were refraining from taking up a position on the former prime minister’s health.

Prominent lawyer Kamran Murtaza told The News that there is no concept of limited bail, and an accused is either granted or refused bail. Since his conviction in the Al-Azizia reference by an accountability court of Islamabad presided over by now suspended Judge Arshad Malik on Dec 24, 2018, the ex-premier has been pleading through Khawaja Haris in courts that he is seriously ill and quickly needs bail to get medical attention of his choice.

However, over the last seven days, all the senior government doctors who are treating Nawaz Sharif are of the unanimous opinion that he is in a highly grave condition in which when one disease is treated the other worsens and he is suffering from multiple ailments. The top specialists have been in a catch-22 situation since then on the question of treating him and at times became helpless how to proceed.

Before he was rushed to the Services Hospital of Lahore a week back as his condition extremely deteriorated in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), his political rivals having been pooh-poohing reports about his serious health and asserting ad nauseam that he is pretending just to go abroad.

In the meantime, six medical boards constituted by the Punjab government unanimously concluded that Nawaz Sharif needs urgent treatment and his condition has aggravated to a dangerous extent. Eminent heart specialist and chief of the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) Maj-Gen (R) Azhar Mahmood Kayani had recommended as a member of a board that the ex-premier should be promptly admitted in a specialized cardiac medical facility.

As his health bulletins were frequently publicly released by Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and doctors treating the ex-premier, everybody became extremely worried. Even Prime Minister Imran Khan too became alarmed and posted a couple of tweets, assuring treatment to Nawaz Sharif. He also sent the chief executive of the Shaukat Khanum Hospital to see him in the Services Hospital and got an update from him about the patient’s health condition.

The former prime minister’s personal physician Dr Adnan in the meanwhile has kept sounding alarm bells since long, underlining that his patient’s health is going further down if remedial medical measures are not immediately taken. However, his opinion was dubbed as partisan. Dr Adnan told the IHC and so far, the medical board was not able to figure out the reason behind the destruction of the platelets in the former premier's body. "Nawaz Sharif is still unstable. I have never seen him in such an alarming condition.”

At the same time, Khawaja Haris expressed dissatisfaction with the medical care of his client so far. "So far we are not satisfied with the medical board's treatment. The board itself is saying in its report that it is unable to manage Nawaz Sharif's treatment. The Services Hospital does not have machinery to conduct medical tests. He has to be taken to different places for his tests to be conducted."

Khawaja Haris had also earlier consistently argued in the IHC for grant of bail to the former prime minister for health reasons, but he had not been able to convince the same judges, who have now given bail for eight weeks.

In the Supreme Court, the lawyer had pleaded for extension of the six-week bail that he should be given another two months release as his health was deteriorating which required an angiography as per his medical reports. “The blockage in Sharif’s carotid artery has increased by 50 per cent, which is an alarming sign. A cardiac MRI is used all over the world as an alternative for angiography but the process is not offered anywhere in the country.”

The IHC asked the doctors, who are part of the medical board, if it was possible for Nawaz Sharif to recover without staying in the hospital and they responded in the negative and said that he required medical supervision at all times.

They disclosed that the ex-premier had been given 80 injections in order to bring his platelet count — which had dropped to dangerous levels — to normal.