Despite fears of kidney collapse, Nawaz Sharif refuses to be moved to hospital

Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has declined to be shifted to a hospital despite his health condition deteriorating in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. Pakistan-based Dawn News quoted a jail official on condition of anonymity as saying that the former prime minister wants treatment to be provided to him inside the prison itself.

This comes after Pakistan media reported that Nawaz Sharif is in need of urgent medical attention and his kidney is on the verge of collapse. The same was confirmed by a medical board that examined him on Sunday.

Pakistan’s Express News had quoted sources as saying that Sharif has kidney-related complications and that a medical board examining him has recommended that he be transferred to a hospital as soon as possible. The doctors reportedly also said that the medical centre within the jail did not have facilities to provide IV fluid to patients.

The same report also quoted sources in the government as contradicting the report on Sharif’s medical condition and said that regular medical tests had shown no such complication.

Sharif, daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were taken to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi last week soon after they landed in Lahore from London via UAE, as they were convicted in Avenfield properties case.

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz had alleged that Sharif was being treated as a terrorist and deprived of even basic facilities in the jail. The party alleged that the former prime minister was not being provided newspaper and made to use a washroom which was not in proper condition.

Meanwhile, a judge of the Islamabad High Court, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, alleged that Pakistan’s ISI did not want Sharif out of jail before the general elections in the country, scheduled for Wednesday. According to the judge, the ISI had asked Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Kasi to ensure that Sharif and Maryam did not walk out of the jail before the elections.