Air ambulance to move ailing Sharif abroad on Wednesday — party spokesman

In this file photo, Policemen stand guard outside a hospital where former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is admitted after his condition deteriorated, in Lahore on Oct. 24, 2019. (AFP)

• The ambulance is booked on doctor's recommendation, says Marriyum Aurangzeb
• Federal cabinet will mull removing Sharif’s name from the no-fly list on Tuesday

ISLAMABAD: An air ambulance will reach Pakistan on Wednesday to transport the country’s ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif abroad for medical treatment, though his name is yet to be taken off from the no-fly list, his party said on Monday.
“The air ambulance has been arranged to take Nawaz Sharif abroad … The ambulance will reach [Pakistan] on Wednesday,” Marriyum Aurangzeb, spokesperson for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, said in a statement to media.
She said the air ambulance was booked for Sharif on the recommendation of his doctors. “Nawaz Sharif’s life is in danger due to delay in removal of his name from the ECL [Exit Control List],” she said.
Pakistan’s 69-year-old three-time prime minister, Sharif is suffering from a serious immune disorder and was recently released on medical bail from a prison facility in Lahore where he was serving a seven-year sentence on corruption charges.
The former prime minister, who has dominated Pakistan’s politics for about three decades, denies all corruption allegations against him, claiming they are politically motivated.
He was scheduled to fly to the United Kingdom on Monday through a private airline, but his ticket was cancelled since his name was on the country’s no-fly list.
The government has expressed its willingness to remove Sharif’s name from the ECL to let him leave the country for medical treatment, but procedural issues have been delaying his departure.
“All the arrangements for his [Nawaz Sharif’s] treatment abroad have been finalized, and we are now just waiting for the government to remove his name from the ECL,” Raja Zafarul Haq, the chairman of PML-N, told Arab News on Sunday.
Haq said Sharif’s younger brother and PMLN president, Shehbaz Sharif, and his personal doctor, Adnan Khan, would also travel with him to London.
A federal cabinet meeting, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, is expected to decide on the matter on Tuesday as it is the competent authority to include and/or exclude a name from the no-fly list.
The government said on Friday it had granted Sharif permission to travel abroad after Shehbaz Sharif requested the interior ministry to remove the ex-premier’s name from the no-fly list.
“The Ministry of Interior has taken all necessary actions keeping in view the urgency of the matter as pleaded by Shehbaz Sharif in his request,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
On the other hand, the PML-N spokesperson said that delay on the part of the government in the ECL removal was against the recommendations of the medical board that has been examining Sharif for his multiple ailments.
“Doctors are struggling to get his [Sharif’s] platelet level up to the required mark for travel,” Aurangzeb added.