ISLAMABAD   -  Minister for Planning and ruling PTI leader Asad Umar has said that allowing PML-N supremo and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif to fly abroad for medical treatment was the decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“It was hundred per cent decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” he said this while participating in a talk show of a private TV channel.

The minister was stressing in the programme that the PTI government had an exemplary working relationship with the judiciary and the military establishment unlike the previous governments who allegedly made tussles with the state institutions.

On this, the anchorperson questioned him if PTI had a good working relationship with judiciary, then why PM Imran Khan had blamed the same for allowing the former PM to go abroad for his medical treatment? “Who had made the decision, whether it was made by some else and the judiciary was held responsible (for no reasons)?” the TV show host questioned.

Asad in his reply said that PM Khan never said that he had not made the decision. “I personally know that this was the decision of PM Khan,” he said adding that he was present in that room where the matter was discussed and the decision was made. Before this, the cabinet had discussed the issue, he added.

The federal minister further said that six to eight PTI leaders were present in the room and there was a divided opinion among them. “Then PM Khan finally made the decision.”

The PTI leader said that the premier actually had said that those medical reports were fake on whose basis the decision to allow him fly abroad was taken. And there is no doubt that these reports were fake, he further said.

In November 2019, then jailed PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had flown out of Pakistan to get his medical treatment after the court granted him bail on medical grounds and the cabinet allowed to remove his name from no-fly list. Since then, he had been staying in London while the PTI government has been pushing him to return to country and serve his remaining sentence in jail.