Sharif set to leave for specialist medical treatment in US from London: report

Ailing former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, under treatment in London, will leave for the US over the weekend for further specialist care, according to a media report on Wednesday.

Sharif's family has contacted the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for treatment of Nawaz's blocked carotid artery, The Express Tribune reported.

After arrival in the US, Sharif, 69 will undergo a preliminary examination at the hospital before commencement of further treatment, the report said.

Sharif, the PML-N supremo had left for London on November 19 in an air ambulance to seek medical treatment in London, a month after the three-time premier was released on bail from a seven-year prison sentence for corruption.

He was shifted from jail to the Services hospital in Lahore in October after his health condition deteriorated. Doctors then recommended him to get treatment abroad.

The government had allowed Sharif's travel for medical reasons but put the condition that he submit an indemnity bond as a guarantee that he would return to the country after getting treatment. He, however, rejected the condition.

Sharif was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court on humanitarian grounds in the Al Azizia case and by the Lahore High Court in the ongoing Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, in which he is a suspect.

In November, he was allowed by the LHC to travel abroad for treatment without any bond.

The news of the Sharif family's plan to shift the ailing leader to the US came on a day when the Pakistan government said it will now allow the ex-prime minister's daughter, Maryam Nawaz, also the Vice President of the PML-N to visit her ailing father in London.

Before obtaining bail last month, she had been in custody following an investigation into the Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption case. Since her name figures in the no-fly list, she cannot go abroad.