Govt, Opp trade barbs over Nawaz’s health

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–Fawad says Opp leaders want to save their skin by playing politics over Nawaz’s health

–PPP’s Khursheed Shah warns ruling PTI will be held accountable if anything happened to Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: The government and the opposition lawmakers on Sunday traded barbs after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Khursheed Shah accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government of refusing better healthcare to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Speaking during a rally in Sukkur, Khursheed Shah criticised the government for allegedly showing negligence over the health of the former premier.

“If anything adverse happened to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo then the government would be responsible for it and it would be considered as murder,” the PPP leader warned.

He said that the prime minister should step down from the container as he now represents all the country instead of a single political party.

‘POLITICISATION OF NAWAZ’S HEALTH’:

Responding to Shah’s criticism, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the opposition was raising a hue and cry over the matter out of fear of jail.

Addressing a public gathering in Jhelum, the information minister said that opposition parties were politicising the matter.

“The former opposition leader is not concerned about Nawaz’s health but is concerned about being sent to jail,” said Fawad while taking a jibe at the PPP lawmaker. “The misdeeds committed by him [Shah] were before everyone to see.”

Fawad also claimed that there a section inside the PML-N which is politicising the health of the former premier. He said that the PML-N supremo’s continued refusal to be shifted to a hospital of his choice made it seem like the matter is not of treatment, but of politics.

AILING NAWAZ :

The Punjab government sent a “state-of-the-art” mobile medical unit to Kot Lakhpat jail on Saturday after incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif refused to accept an offer by Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide him access to a doctor and hospital of his choice for treatment.

Talking to journalists at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Punjab CM’s Spokesman Shahbaz Gill said that following Nawaz’s daughter Maryam’s tweet on Friday evening requesting jail authorities to “establish an immediate resuscitation and life-saving unit on [the] jail premises”, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar immediately gave orders that very night to take the necessary measures.

On Tuesday, former first daughter Maryam Nawaz claimed that her father experienced five episodes of angina over the past week, and that the PTI-led government’s “callousness” towards his health is putting at risk his health and life.

Nawaz has been imprisoned at Kot Lakhpat Jail since December 2018 following his conviction in a corruption reference in line with the Supreme Court’s (SC) July 2017 verdict.