I feel 'embarrassed' for allowing Nawaz to go abroad, says Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday he felt “embarrassed” over his decision to allow former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to go abroad for his medical treatment. 

During an interview to a private news channel, Khan said the government was told that Nawaz Sharif was in such a critical condition that he may not even reach London. He said he sent Shaukat Khanum Hospital CEO Dr Faisal Sultan to Nawaz Sharif to have an idea of his health condition. He said doctors told him that Nawaz Sharif’s health condition was not critical, but the diseases he was suffering from could be fatal. 

Khan said the Sharif family had strong connections abroad. He said that even king of a country said he had relations with Nawaz Sharif. He said that past governments were involved in massive corruption. He said that money made through corruption was used in the past to buy political people’s loyalties. 

The prime minister said that India had been lobbying vigorously to have Pakistan put on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). He said that opposition parties in Pakistan were opposing FATF-related legislation just to secure some favours for themselves. He said that opposition parties wanted the government to spare them from money-laundering investigation and accountability. 

Therefore, Khan said, the opposition parties recommended amendments to 34 of the total 38 articles of the accountability law. He said that opposition wanted a complete freedom from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in return for their support to the FATF-related legislation. He said the opposition parties were trying to blackmail him in order to secure an NRO, but he would not do so. He said that Nawaz Sharif and his children owned properties worth billions of dollars abroad, but they could not submit even a single document to prove that they transferred the money abroad legally.