Attorney General for Pakistan has asked David R Lawrence to verify Pakistani doctors about the health condition of former Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

Secretary to Attorney General Khalid Khan Niazi on Wednesday wrote a letter, with the approval of the AGP Khalid Jawed Khan, to Dr Lawrence, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Nawaz Sharif’s physician.

Pakistan High Commission in London was asked to deliver the letter to Dr Lawrence and nominate a focal person to coordinate meeting and examination of medical record of Nawaz Sharif.

The federal cabinet on 11th January 2022 instructed the Attorney General for Pakistan to initiate proceedings for abuse of process and contempt of court.

The Punjab government constituted a Special Medical Board (SMB) on 14 January 2022 to examine the documents issued by Dr Lawrence. The SMB observed that the documents do not provide any information about his current clinical evaluation, blood reports, imaging results and any interventional procedure done so far.

Therefore, the SMB is not in a position to render any structured advice or a considered opinion about Nawaz Sharif’s current physical condition and ability to travel to the competent authority in the light of available information.

Another document dated 28 January 2022, signed by Fayaz Shawl, MD USA was submitted in the LHC on behalf of the petitioner. This, statedly, was an evaluation of Nawaz Sharif by Dr Shawl and not a medical report.

The Medical Board observed that Dr Shawl’s evaluation do not provide any information about Nawaz Sharif’s present physical status, haematology/ blood reports, imaging results and any interventional procedures done so for. Therefore, it was not in a position to render any conclusive opinion about his current physical condition and ability to travel, to the competent authority in the light of the available information.

The letter states: It appears from the foregoing that Nawaz Sharif is primarily under your care, while Dr Shawl wrote his medical evaluation during or after his trip to London. All clinical tests, laboratory reports, interventional procedures, in any, physical examination etc must have been conducted in the United Kingdom.

The AGP wrote that in light of the undertakings and the order of the Court, the doctor(s), as nominated by the government, intend to meet you to verify/ confirm about the health condition of Nawaz Sharif. As observed by the SMB, the doctor(s) would need to examine all the relevant medical record including current evaluation, haematology/ blood reports; the doctors cannot form any medical opinion nor verify/ confirm about the health status of Nawaz Sharif and his ability to travel back to Pakistan.

Dr Lawrence, you are; therefore, requested to intimate and confirm to the High Commission of Pakistan at London or the Office of the Attorney General for Pakistan, the date, time and venue when the doctor(s) can meet you and examine the medical record of Nawaz Sharif. This meeting/ examination of medical record may be scheduled for a date of your convenience between February 22 and March 13, 2022.

A division bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) on 16 November 2019 has granted one-time permission to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad for four weeks and he was to return when certified by doctors that he has regained his health and is fit to return back to Pakistan. Shehbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif gave undertakings before the LHC.

This report was first published in Business Recorder on February 17, 2022.