Ailing ex-Pak PM Nawaz Sharif's health improves

Pakistan's ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's health has showed signs of improvement as his platelet count rose to 40,000 on Thursday, according to a media report.

The 69-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo is still admitted in Services Hospital here, with no further episodes of chest pain for the last five days, The Express Tribune reported, quoting an unnamed doctor as saying.

The three-time prime minister was rushed to hospital on Monday night from Pakistan's anti-graft body's custody after his platelets dropped to a critically low level of 2,000.

On Wednesday, a medical board said that Sharif's health showed signs of improvement as his platelet count stabilised and blood pressure reported normal.

"The condition of Nawaz Sharif improved today (Wednesday). His platelet count stabilised. It increased from 28,000 to 35,000," Services Hospital Principal Dr Mahmood Ayaz, who is heading the 10-member medical board, said.

"Sharif's blood pressure is under control and he had a dental treatment today (Wednesday) and he also walked. We are positive that his condition will improve with the passage of time," he said, adding the doctors are treating complications related to the patient's heart, kidney, low platelet among others.

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday suspended Sharif's sentence for eight weeks in a corruption case, paving way for his release on medical grounds.

He had already secured bail from the Lahore High Court in the money laundering case linked to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills.

Regarding shifting Sharif to London for better treatment, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal told PTI on Wednesday that the first and foremost effort of doctors is to stabilise his condition.

"Once his condition is stabilised, the question of his going abroad will arise and be decided," Iqbal said.

Another PML-N leader and former foreign minister Khwaja Asif said Sharif will decide on his own whether he wants to be treated abroad or not, the report said.