LONDON: A day after he submitted a fresh medical report advising him against travel to Pakistan to the Lahore High Court (LHC), a video of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif visiting a local industrial unit in a northwestern town of England went viral on social media, questioning the credibility of these reports and strengthening the legitimacy of government claims that he’s only faking his illness to escape the trial in corruption cases against him.
The video, accessed and shared by ARY News and not independently verified by Pakistan Today, shows the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader, accompanied by his two sons and former finance minister Ishaq Dar, visiting the different sections of the business — a factory — and apparently taking a briefing from the staff.
According to ARY News, the business is located in Nelson, a town in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, some 245 miles (394 kilometres) away from Sharif’s notorious Avenfield House residence in Central London.
After spending a year in prison, Sharif, 72, secured a conditional one-month bail in November 2019 to travel to London on the pretext of medical treatment but has since refused to return.
His party insists that despite being summoned by the courts, which declared him a proclaimed offender in separate graft trials, the former prime minister will only return after the completion of his medical treatment — the nature of which remains a mystery to date.
INP adds: When contacted, a spokesperson for the family said Sharif visited the business at the invitation of a friend and also had lunch there.
