ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday finally accepted an application filed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for early hearing of an appeal against the rejection of his plea for bail on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia reference.

The apex court set March 19 for hearing his appeal. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa and also comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi, will hear the appeal.

The ex-PM had twice approachedthe apex court this month for early hearing of his appeal against the Feb 25 Islamabad High Court (IHC) order of turning down his bail plea on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia corruption reference.

Mr Sharif is serving a seven-year term in Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia reference.

Senior counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed filed a fresh application on March 11. The single-page application stated, `Since the rejection of the aforesaid (earlier) application, the medical condition of the petitioner (Nawaz Sharif) has worsened and, as such, the instant application is being filed with a prayer that in view of the urgency involved in this case the CPLA (civil petition for leave to appeal) may be ordered to be fixed in the next week.

In f act the application prayed for the fixation of hearing by the SC at an early date in the coming week. The previous request for immediate hearingwas turned down by the registrar of fice with an observation that the matter will be fixed on its turn.

The high court in its Feb 25 order had held that none of the medical reports about Mr Sharif`s condition suggested that his continued incarceration in any way would be detrimental to his life. It also observed that he had been hospitalised time and again since January 2019, whenever he made complaints about his indisposition. `In fact the reports of board of doctors are indicative of the fact that petitioner is receiving best possible medical treatment available to any individual in Pakistan,` the judgement had held.

But the appeal before the apex court on behalf of the former premier had contended that the former premier be released on bail after suspending the execution of the Dec 24, 2018 sentence of seven-year imprisonment awarded by an accountability court.

The appeal contended that the Feb25 order of the IHC was in violation of his fundamental right to life as guaranteed by Article 9 of the constitution. It added, `The Pakistan Prison Rules of 1978 were neither relevant to nor were invoked by him for the suspension of his sentence on medical grounds. As such reference to the police rules or their non-applicability to his case is redundant and extraneous to his plea for suspension of sentence.

The appeal had also highlighted that the diagnosis recorded in the medical reports of the Special Medical Boards (SMB) had suggested that he was suffering from recurrent angina, ischemic heart disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease-stage 3, diabetic nephropathy, dyslipidemia (abnormal amount of lipids in blood), hyperuricemia (access of uric acid in blood).

The SMB had recommended unanimously that he required round-theclock monitoring in a multidisciplinary f acility for managing his ailmentsand that he required to undergo angiography after clearance from nephrologists and cardiac surgical back-up, for ascertaining what further management and treatment he would need, the appeal recalled.

It argued that the high court, however, failed to exercise jurisdiction vested in it by law in passing the Feb 25 judgement without considering the peculiar facts pertaining to the medical condition of the ex-premier, despite noting the principle, as laid down in the 1997 Mohammad Arshad case, that in cases involving suspension of sentence on medical grounds, the facts of each case have to be assessed on its own merits.

The plea feared that the medical reports showing that the former premier was suffering from different ailments, which collectively constituted a risk for stroke, an alarming degree of threat of irreversible damage to his heart and potential threat to further deterioration of his other diseases.