Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in need of urgent medical attention with his kidney on the verge of collapsing. This is what a medical board which examined him on Sunday reportedly found, according to media reports in the country.


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Pakistan's Express News quoted sources as saying that Sharif - currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail - has kidney-related complications and that a medical board examining him has may recommend that he be transferred to a hospital as soon as is possible. The doctors, apparently, have also said that the medical center within the jail does not have facilities to provide IV fluid to patients.


The same report also quoted sources in the government as contradicting the report on Sharif's medical condition and instead, said that regular medical tests have shown no such complication.


It is expected that the team of doctors who examined the jailed former PM do make an official recommendation, Sharif could be taken to a hospital for treatment.


Sharif, daughter Mariyam and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar have been sentenced to imprisonment by an anti-graft court on charges of possessing disproportionate assets. Sharif and Maryam flew from London last week and were taken to the Rawalpindi jail where, according to people close to the two, they have been lodged in questionable conditions.


The possibility of moving Sharif to a rest house in Islamabad - previously used to keep key political figures under house arrest - has been mooted but no decision has been taken in the matter. Interestingly, local media reported that it is this rest house that was initially planned for Sharif, Maryan and Safdar but the three were instead put in the Adiala Jail which houses several high-profile - and possibly dangerous - inmates. While security has been tightened here, there is also a fear of a possible threat to life of Sharif in particular.