Govt respects court order on Nawaz’s bail: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said his government respects the court’s decision after the Supreme Court granted former premier Nawaz Sharif six weeks bail for medical treatment.

“We had already directed that Nawaz Sharif be provided all medical facilities. The courts and institutions in the country are independent,” Khan was quoted as saying by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.

Briefing reporters following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Chaudhry said the Prime Minister had already offered Sharif treatment from a doctor and hospital of his choice and he was even offered to call a doctor from abroad.

The minister added: “The narrative of Nawaz Sharif has been exposed as there is no illness, just mental tension in the prison.”

Speaking on the possibility of a plea bargain for Sharif, the minister said there was a law for this and money “stolen” from the public had to be returned. “Khawaja Haris [Sharif’s counsel] should give him the right legal advice, which is to return the people’s looted money,” he added.

The minister also said the government would challenge the Lahore High Court’s decision of removing Shahbaz Sharif’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL) in the Supreme Court, claiming the Sharif family members’ record showed that after leaving the country, they never returned.

To a question, Chaudhry said the government was ready to sit with the opposition on every issue but there would be no compromise on the process of accountability as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf contested the election on the anti-corruption slogan and it could not betray its voters.

About the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) anti-government train march being led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, he said: “The only positive thing about it is that they had to pay for the railway tickets.” He added that Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid had said over a million rupees was paid for the journey.

Chaudhry called on “the people of Sindh and neutral lawmakers to take note” that money in the province’s share of the NFC award was “being sent abroad”. “There will be a wave of change in Sindh soon,” he added.

He also decried the PPP’s decision to nominate “the main accused in fake accounts case Faryal Talpur and Sharjeel Memon” as members of the province’s Public Accounts Committee, which was a “mockery of the accountability system”.

The minister said: It seems the PPP and the PML-N have adopted corruption as their political ideology, and they are following it.”