Ishaq Dar admitted to London hospital

LONDON: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has been admitted to London Bridge Hospital for the treatment of his chronic neck and lower back pain.

Dar is being given steroid injections into his cervical spine in the form of nerve root block and facet joint steroid injections, according to hospital sources.

The former minister had been having chronic progressive neck pain radiating to the arm for which he was referred by his cardiac surgeon to a consultant spinal neurosurgeon at the London Spinal Centre, it has been learnt.

A report by the doctor issued on December 21, 2017, confirmed that Dar suffered multi-level disc herniation and neural foraminal stenosis in the cervical spine particularly at C3/4, C5/6 and C6/7. The report also said that Dar's symptoms have worsened, rating him it as “9/10 on the VAS” with disc protrusion at the L4/5 level.

The former minister came to London on October 29, 2017, after complaining of chest heaviness and shortness of breath while performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia a day earlier. In London, his coronary angiography was initially undertaken. Subsequently, Transthoracic Echocardiogram and a Dobutamine Stress Echocardiogram were done among other tests and it was established that he had issues with one of the coronary vessels, which for the time being is being treated with strong medication to avoid surgical intervention.

In the 3rd week of November 2017, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi accepted Dar's request to relinquish his charge of the various cabinet divisions he was heading and granted him a leave of absence for 3 months.

This week, Dar filed a petition in the accountability court requesting it to unfreeze accounts of his charitable organisations namely Hajveri Trust and Hajveri Foundation. The accountability court is hearing assets reference filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

In his petition, Dar maintained that Hajveri Trust is an organisation that manages an orphanage house named ‘Saaya’, where currently 93 orphaned children live and are provided full time boarding, lodging and education, while Hajveri Foundation on the other hand is involved in pool marriages, medical treatments for the needy, payment of education fee for the poor, food distribution in various hospitals and distributing Ramazan Rashan Packages to thousands of needy.

He has pleaded that the bank accounts have been wrongly frozen and consequently hundreds of poor and needy families are being effected by the decision, hence, Section 23 should be immediately removed and the accounts should be immediately unfrozen.

Dar is expected to be discharged tomorrow after today's procedure that lasted for over 1.5 hours.