Docs advise Sharif to go to US as health remains weak

Pakistan's ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently undergoing treatment in London, has shown no improvement in his platelet count and the doctors have advised that he be shifted to the US for better medical care, a top PML-N official said on Monday.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the 69-year-old Sharif's medical reports showed there was an 88 per cent blockage in the arteries circulating blood to his brain.

"Doctors have advised him to consult an expert in the United States. However, transporting him there poses an immense challenge for the medical team," she said.

"There has been no improvement in his platelet count despite the high doses of steroids, which were also causing his blood sugar levels to rise," Aurangzeb was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

The reason for the decreasing platelet count was yet to be ascertained, the spokesperson said, adding that Sharif is also expected to undergo a biopsy in light of his latest positron emission tomography (PET) scan.

Sharif left for London from Pakistan on November 19 in an air ambulance for medical treatment after the Lahore High Court allowed him to travel abroad for four weeks. The four-week duration can be extended further on his doctors' recommendations.

The three-time prime minister is currently receiving treatment at the Harvey Clinic in London for his multiple health ailments, including an immune system disorder causing low platelet count.

A group of senior PML-N leaders is in London, but they were so far not allowed to visit him and briefed on Sharif's condition by his personal physician Adnan Khan.

The PML-N supreme leader has been residing at the Avenfield flats owned by his son Hasan Nawaz in London since November 20.

The doctors in Pakistan had recommended that Sharif should go abroad for treatment after his condition continued to deteriorate despite the best possible care in the country.

Sharif was accompanied by his younger brother and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, his personal physician Khan and other paramedical personnel when he left from Lahore airport for London via Qatar in the air ambulance which had arrived from Doha and was equipped with an intensive care unit and an operation theatre.

Last month, the Lahore High Court ordered the Imran Khan government to remove Sharif's name from the no-fly list or the Exit Control List (ECL).

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government granted a one-time permission to Sharif for four weeks to travel abroad for his treatment provided he submitted indemnity bonds worth Rs 700 crore.

Sharif challenged this condition in the court terming it 'illegal' and a "trap" of prime minister Khan to use them (bonds) for his political gains.

Sharif had secured eight weeks bail on medical grounds in October from the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven years imprisonment. He also got bail from the Lahore High Court in the money laundering case.

He agreed to go to the UK for treatment, heeding doctors' advice and accepting his family's request. He was scheduled to leave for London on November 10. However, he could not leave as his name figured in the no fly-list.

The former prime minister was lodged in the Kot Lakhpat jail but was later shifted to the custody of the National Accountability Bureau which is probing the Sharif family in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption case.

In December last year, an accountability court had sentenced Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case and acquitted him in the Flagship case.

The Sharif family has denied all corruption charges and termed them as politically motivated.