IHC rejects Nawaz Sharif's plea for bail on medical grounds

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, who is currently behind bars in a National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Al-Azizia steel mills corruption case, had filed a plea before the Islamabad High Court to suspend his sentence and grant him bail on medical grounds.

But the two-judge IHC bench, which had reserved its decision on the request earlier today, rejected the plea to grant him bail. Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani of the IHC read out the court's orders.

During previous hearings of the case, Nawaz Sharif's counsel Khawaja Haris had told the court that his client was suffering from multiple dangerous diseases including diabetes, blood pressure and cardiac-related problems that cannot be treated in Pakistan, pleading to the bench to grant him as his life is in danger.

"Former prime minister is also in mental stress due to his ailment," he had added, saying his client was seeking bail on medical grounds.

But the superintendent of the Kot Lakhpat jail and a medical officer earlier this week informed the court that Nawaz Sharif’s health condition was better under the current medical treatment offered to him. The jail superintendent also pleaded with the court to dispose of Nawaz Sharif's bail application.

An accountability court had awarded the former prime minister a seven-year jail sentence and Rs1.5 billion fine in the al-Azizia steel mills corruption case last year.