Hospitals reject special ambulance facility for Sharif

Lahore: Two government hospitals have denied a specialised cardiac ambulance facility for emergency medical cover to former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Central Jail here, a media report said on Friday.

The Punjab Prisons Department had requested the health authorities to provide a fully-equipped ambulance to station it in the Central Jail to shift Sharif to any hospital in case of any emergency, Dawn news said in its report. 

The request was submitted on finding that the ambulance made available in the jail was insufficiently equipped.

The health department had been asked for a specialised cardiac ambulance equipped with a defibrillator, cardiac monitor, ventilator and ECG machine. 

Sharif has been serving the jail term since December 24, 2018 in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case which was filed in the wake of the apex court’s July 28, 2017 order in the Panama Papers case.

He was sentenced after the ruling that Al-Azizia Steel Mills — a Saudi Arabian firm carrying the name of the former Prime Minister’s son — belonged to Sharif who could not clarify how the project was funded.