Sharif to remain on no-fly list, need to show court order to go abroad for medical treatment

Pakistan's ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, will remain on the no-fly list and will have to show the court order to go to the UK for medical treatment on Tuesday, a media report quoting immigration sources said on Monday.

Sharif, 69, will leave for London on Tuesday by an air ambulance for treatment after the Lahore High Court allowed him to travel abroad for four weeks for medical care on his plea and rejected the Imran Khan government's condition of furnishing an indemnity bond.

The name of Sharif will remain on the no-fly list or Exit Control List (ECL) even after the court allowed him to go abroad for medical treatment, Immigration sources were quoted as saying by the Geo News.

According to immigration officials, since the court granted the former premier an exemption on medical grounds to travel outside the country, he will have to produce the court order to get past immigration officials.

As per the law, Sharif's name will remain on the ECL, but his exemption according to the court order will be mentioned in the computerised record, the report quoted sources in the interior ministry.

The three-time premier will have to produce his passport and the court order before the immigration officials to fly abroad from the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore on Tuesday morning.

"Former PM #NawazSharif will travel to London in a high-end Air Ambulance equipped with a fully functional & staffed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) & Operation Theatre (OT)," Dr Adnan Khan, Sharif's personal doctor, tweeted.

"A team of doctors & paramedics will be on board headed by an Intensivist. ETD (LHE): Tuesday 19NOV19 Morning," he added.

On Wednesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government granted a one-time permission to Sharif for four weeks to travel abroad for his treatment provided he submitted indemnity bonds worth Rs 700 crore.

Sharif challenged this condition in the court terming it 'illegal' and a "trap" of prime minister Khan to use them (bonds) for his political gains.

Sharif recently secured eight weeks bail on medical grounds from the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven years imprisonment. He also got bail from the LHC in the money laundering case.

He agreed to go to the UK for treatment, heeding doctors' advice and accepting his family's request. He was scheduled to leave for London on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight on Sunday. However, he could not leave as his name figured in the no fly-list.