LAHORE  -    Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sunday said former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif may avail the plea-bargain option to go abroad but only after paying back the looted wealth of this nation.

“The plundered money does not belong to the NAB or the government. It belongs to poor people of this nation,” he said while addressing a news conference here.

Punjab Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid also accompanied him.

The minister, however, made it clear that the accountability process [against Nawaz Sharif and others] would not stop on the pretext of bad health of any politician.

“Nawaz Sharif will have to return every penny of the masses and it would be only then that he could be allowed to leave the country,” he stated.

The minister said the PTI govt had nothing to do with the cases against Nawaz as they had been constituted during his regime. “Even the judges dealing with his cases have not been appointed by the PTI govt,” he added.

Fawad said Nawaz Sharif wanted to go abroad for treatment but the govt had no power to send him to any foreign country since the matter was lying pending in courts.

Fawad said govt was providing all medical facilities to the ex-Prime Minister, but he was not willing to undergo the treatment at any health facility in Pakistan. The govt, he said, had offered him treatment even by a foreign physician of his choice. “He, in fact, wants to go abroad for treatment,” he said.

The minister said some recent complications that coming up in Nawaz’s health were because of his previous doctors in London.

He said it was ironic to see that Nawaz Sharif had no trust in Pakistani doctors and hospitals despite being in power for 30 long years.

He said it was despite the fact that expert doctors were available at Jinnah Hospital, Shaikh Zayed Hospital and Mayo Hospital, and the govt had even offered to arrange a foreign specialist for his treatment.

The minister asked Nawaz Sharif to whom he was criticising by complaining of poor health facilities in Pakistan.

He said extraordinary medical facilities were being provided to Nawaz Sharif to treat his cardiac, kidney and diabetes ailments but he had refused to avail the treatment within Pakistan.

“Recently, Punjab Chief Minister’s spokesman Dr Shahbaz Gill alongside senior journalist Mujeebur Rehman Shami visited Nawaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat Jail. He was offered medical treatment of his choice within Pakistan, but he declined this offer,” he informed the media.

He said the Punjab government had established a mini-cardiac unit at Kot Lakhpat Jail with three cardiologists and three technicians available round the clock, but Nawaz had not allowed them access for treatment.

“As a matter of fact, Nawaz does not have faith in the health facilities which he and his brother Shehbaz Sharif had built over three decades,” he remarked.

Recalling the past incident when Imran Khan fell off a staircase during 2013 elections campaign, the minister said it was only Imran Khan who preferred to be treated at Shaukat Khan Memorial Hospital (SKMH), although an air ambulance had been arranged for shifting him abroad for medical treatment.

Similarly, he added, Imran Khan’s late father also got all treatment in Pakistan instead of going abroad. “This is spirit which differentiates the PTI leadership from that of the PML-N.”

Reacting to PML-N leader’s objections to a gynaecologist heading the medical team constituted to suggest treatment options for the ex-PM, he said Dr Arif Tajjamul was appointed as head of the team being the administrative in-charge of Jinnah Hospital so that he could coordinate with other doctors actually treating the PML-N leader.

In sarcastic comment over Nawaz Sharif’s selection of a particular room at Jinnah Hospital, he said he did not like any place in the hospital even though the new construction at Jinnah Hospital was undertaken during the tenures of Nawaz and his brother Shehbaz.

Nawaz had complained that some rooms did not smell good while in some the bed was not up to the mark, he said.

Fawad said Nawaz Sharif had to be lodged in doctor’s room by removing the furniture for his bed and vacating an entire ward for one person.

Fawad said a section in the PML-N was doing politics over Nawaz’s health and also trying to blackmail the government over the issue.

He said since the Prime Minister had directed the Punjab govt to provide maximum available treatment facilities to the ex-PM, he came to Lahore to see if the provincial govt had made adequate arrangements at hospitals to cope with any emergent situation.

He said a high-level meeting of all the relevant provincial departments, including Health Department and Prisons Department, reviewed in detail the measures taken for Nawaz’s treatment.

Fawad then briefed the media about the steps taken by the Punjab government for treatment of Nawaz in the past few months. He said Nawaz had informed the Punjab government about his ailment through a letter on January 16, 2019.

The provincial government promptly got his detailed medical check-up from Dr Shahid Hameed, who referred him to the PIC (Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore) for his further tests.

On January 22, the minister said Nawaz was brought to the PIC where his various tests, including Eco and Thallium, were conducted. He was shifted back to the jail same day.

He said on January 25 a six-member medical board, including senior professor doctors of PIC, Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology and AFIC (Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi) was constituted.

On February 3, he said, the medical board checked Nawaz Sharif at Central Jail Kot Lakhpat and advised for his shifting to a hospital because he had undergone angioplasty in 2001 and 2017, and a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG-heart bypass surgery) in 2016.

But the Sharif family insisted on his treatment from London, he said, adding Nawaz’s health complication had been caused by the London doctors. On the advice of the board, he said, Nawaz was shifted to the Services Hospital as his primary issues were sugar and hypertension.

He remained under treatment for six days, he added

He said Nawaz was advised to have an angiography procedure done to diagnose heart problems but he refused.

Fawad said on February 14 Nawaz was shifted to Jinnah Hospital where medical specialists of various diseases, including heart, were available, besides constituting a coordination team comprising professors of cardiology, urology and medicines.

On February 24, he said the court rejected the bail plea of Nawaz Sharif.

On the following day, Nawaz desired for his reshifting to the jail and the administration complied with his wish, he said.

On March 8, he added, the Punjab Home Department through a letter, offered Nawaz to get medical treatment of his choice from any private or public doctor or hospital in Pakistan, besides calling any physician from abroad, but he refused to avail the offer.