Sharif refuses to shift to hospital, says prefer 'death' over political victimisation

Lahore: Pakistan’s deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday refused to be relocated to a hospital for treatment despite requests by his family members, saying he prefers an “honourable death” over kneeling to “politics being done” by the government in the name of his treatment.

Sharif, 69, is serving a seven-year imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case at the Kot Lakhpat Jail since December 2018.

“I will not accept the PTI government’s disdainful behaviour of pushing me around in the name of medical treatment from one irrelevant hospital to another. I prefer honourable death over kneeling to the Imran Khan government’s derogatory exploits,” Sharif told his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat jail here.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo has suffered four angina attacks last week, his daughter Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday.

The Sharif family is complaining that the government is not providing health facilities to the former premier who has serious health complications.

Sharif said the government is doing political victimization “in the name of medical treatment”.

“The government has not provided any facility for appropriate treatment and is bent on just irritating and bothering to serve its prejudicial designs,” he said.

Maryam said Sharif had “refused to go to any hospital despite suffering from serious medical condition”.

Earlier in a tweet, she said she took her grandmother along with her to convince her father to let the government shift him to a hospital. However, he “declined the request” and told his mother to “go home, pray to God, and leave the rest to the will of the almighty”.