LONDON: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s open-heart surgery has been performed successfully in London and he has been shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU), confirmed the prime minister daughter on Tuesday.
“Surgery successful,” Maryam Nawaz said on her Twitter account about four-and-a-half hours after she said the operation had begun. It was second cardiac procedure in five years, she added.
“PM’s surgery started at 8am UK time. Spoke to him earlier, he was in high spirits,” Maryam tweeted earlier. “All arteries successfully grafted,” she had said, adding that surgery may take another 60 to 90 minutes to conclude.
Punjab Chief Minister had a brief meeting with the prime minister at the hospital after he regained consciousness.
The operation took place after Nawaz Sharif’s doctors decided it was necessary to deal with complications from a separate heart procedure five years ago that had gone wrong, his family said.
Shahbaz Sharif, speaking outside the hospital, said the prime minister had undergone four heart bypasses to deal with blockages. He was shifted from the operating theater to the intensive care unit.
“The doctors came into the room and congratulated us. It was a successful operation,” said Shahbaz. “There’s a recovery cycle. God willing, he’ll recover quickly.”
He didn’t give a firm time for the prime minister’s return to Pakistan, saying only that ‘the doctor’s advice will be followed’.
Before the operation, an aide had said on Monday that he was expected to spend three to four days in intensive care and at least two weeks recovering in London.
Earlier, a great deal of secrecy surrounded the PM’s surgery and it was not known which hospital he has been admitted to. The prime minister could not be found at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea where he previously received treatment, and was presumed to have left his home without detection. Members of the prime minister’s security detail were reportedly posted at various hospitals to throw reporters off the trail.
The prime minister’s surgery comes at a key time in the legislative calendar of the country, with the annual budget for 2016-17 fiscal year due to be announced on Friday. Nawaz Sharif chaired two key budget meetings on Monday through videoconferencing. During the meetings, he said the Pakistani economy had improved since his party came to power in 2013. “All the energy in my body and spirit are dedicated to this land, which gave me respect and honor,” he said in his speech to the cabinet meeting on the budget on Monday, which was televised. “I see a Pakistan that is free of terrorism, poverty, ignorance, backwardness and darkness, which the world will look at with envy.”
Nawaz Sharif’s surgery also comes as he faces pressure from opposition parties for an investigation into the source of his family’s wealth amid corruption allegations.
