Shahbaz announces 'quick visit' to London to see grandchildren, undergo medical checkup

Published April 9, 2019
Sharif said that owing to his detention and his name on the no-fly list, he had been unable to pay his grandchildren a visit. — File
Sharif said that owing to his detention and his name on the no-fly list, he had been unable to pay his grandchildren a visit. — File

The leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that he is heading off to London to see his grandchildren and undergo a medical checkup, after his name was removed from the Exit Control List (ECL) on the Lahore High Court's orders two weeks prior.

In back-to-back tweets, Sharif said that he will take a "quick visit to London" and plans on returning soon.

"Because of Judicial grace exercised by Honourable courts, I am now on bail and my name has been taken off the ECL. In these circumstances, I am going to take a quick visit to London to see my grandchildren and go through my own medical check up and return soon IA!" he wrote.

Sharif said that owing to his detention and his name on the no-fly list, he had been unable to pay his grandchildren a visit, both of whom had recently been born.

"Allah blessed my younger son with a boy while my elder son got blessed with a baby girl after 20 years of marriage. Little girl had to undergo major heart surgery in London within a week of birth. I haven’t seen both of them yet because of my detention and my name being on ECL," he said in an earlier tweet.

According to sources within the family, the PML-N leader will be leaving on a late night flight out of Lahore tonight. He will remain in London for a period of 10-12 days, the sources said.

NAB had launched an investigation against Sharif to detect his "illegal" assets in October last year.

The inquiry was launched when Sharif was already in the custody of the bureau in connection with the alleged Rs14 billion Ashiyana-i-Iqbal housing project scam. Sharif is also facing investigation in the Saaf Pani Company scandal for allegedly awarding contracts in violation of rules.

Last month, the federal cabinet had approved a summary for the placement of Shahbaz Sharif's name on the ECL.

The summary had been moved after NAB wrote a letter to the interior ministry seeking placement of the PML-N president's name on the ECL.

In the letter, seen by Dawn.com, the accountability watchdog had stated under 'allegations' regarding Sharif that: "The accused has accumulated assets beyond his known sources of income through corruption & corrupt practices."

Subsequently, on March 26, the Lahore High Court ordered the government to remove the opposition leader's name from the no-fly list.

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