Nawaz Sharif remains critical, platelet count drops again

Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif continues to remain critical and his platelet count has dropped again even as doctors are trying to reduce the steroid dose being administered to the ailing leader.

"Former PM #NawazSharif remains critical. The treating doctors tried to reduce the Steroids dose being given to him but unfortunately resulted in a drop in Platelet count again. The cause needs to be diagnosed & established without delay," Sharif's personal physician Adnan Khan tweeted on Saturday.

"Severe existent co-morbidities has added to the seriousness of the nature of the critical illness, where a very delicate balance has to be maintained between coagulation & anti-coagulation to sustain fragile unstable health status," he said in a follow-up tweet.

Earlier on Tuesday, the doctor said that Sharif's health was in a critical condition and fighting a battle for survival.

Sharif, who was admitted to Lahore's Services Hospital on October 22, is being treated under the supervision of the special medical board of the hospital.

Doctors treating the ailing leader have said that they cannot discharge him from the hospital citing serious health risk, sources told Geo News on Monday. The 69-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo's platelet count had decreased, with the number dropping to 25,000 from 45,000.

As per the medical board, the platelet count had dwindled owing to medicines being administered to Sharif for a cardiac disease following a minor heart attack earlier.

Doctors have advised that Sharif should be kept under observation till the platelet count comes back to normal. They added that the ailing leader faces a "serious health concern" and could not risk shifting or discharging him.

Sharif was earlier granted bail by the Islamabad High Court on medical grounds in connection with Al Azizia and Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption cases.

The ailing Pakistani leader was serving a seven-year imprisonment in the Al-Azizia case in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. Besides this, he was remanded in NAB custody in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills matter.