The Supreme Court will hear an application filed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is seeking an immediate bail on medical grounds, next week.

Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa on Wednesday ordered that the incarcerated PML-N's leader's plea be fixed for hearing sometime next week. Sharif had twice submitted requests to the top court for an early hearing of his application.

The petition will be heard by a three-judge bench of the apex court.

Sharif is serving a seven-year jail term awarded to him in the Al-Azizia corruption case at the Kot Lakhpat jail. In recent days, his family members and PML-N leaders have raised concern about the former prime minister’s reportedly deteriorating health and treatment options available to him.

The PML-N supreme leader had earlier this week approached the SC for a second time seeking an early hearing of his petition against the February 25 order of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which had dismissed his bail petition on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia case.

The former prime minister's counsel, Khawaja Haris Ahmed, had filed the petition a week after the top court's registrar office had rejected the initial plea for early hearing of his appeal.

“That 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,” the fresh single-page application had read.