ISLAMABAD: Declaring former prime minister Nawaz Sharif an “absconder”, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar said that the government is "adamant" to bring him back from the UK where he is currently seeking medical treatment.
“Federal government has decided to do further communication on this (with UK government), and we are also asking the National Accountability Bureau to file an extradition request...Sharif’s bail time has expired, and his status is absconder,"
Akbar said during a press conference on Saturday.
He added that Pakistan's High Commissioner in London had written to the British authorities on the matter, on March 2 this year.
Sharif moved to London for medical treatment in November last year after the Lahore high court permitted him to travel abroad.
This was a month after the three-time premier was released on bail from a seven-year prison sentence for corruption in December 2018.
While in jail, he was diagnosed with an immune system disorder with doctors in Pakistan, suggesting he seek medical treatment abroad after his condition continued to deteriorate.
Akbar, however, said that the former PM "looked perfectly fine" in some of the recent photos shared on social media where Sharif is seen taking a stroll through London with his son.
Sharif "was supposed to regularly update Punjab’s provincial government about his treatment with documentary proofs of his treatment and test reports", but has failed to do so, Akbar added.
Reacting to his statement, Marriyum Aurangzeb, spokesperson for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said that he had "left for treatment on the request of Punjab government."