Hours after PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz posted a series of tweets about former minister Nawaz Sharif's health — which she claimed has "deteriorated visibly" — and the alleged inaction by the government who she claimed were not allowing her and Sharif's personal physician to meet him, a new tweet thanking the government was posted.

"I am told that MNS’s blood samples to check his renal function (urea & creatinine) have been taken," she wrote, referring to her father. "Thank you very much. I hope the lab results, as soon as they come, will also be shared with me."

And then: "Permission to meet MNS also granted. Thank you again," she said, without naming her addressee.

A few hours prior, Maryam had retweeted a post by Dr Adnan, Sharif's personal physician, in which he had claimed that the former prime minister has a dull ache in his sides. Citing "underlying Chronic Kidney Disease (Stage 3) and Nephrolithiasis besides significant heart disease" as the reason for his emergency visit, the physician had claimed that access to Sharif was denied by jail authorities.

"Jail authorities are requested to get Complete Renal Profile and Ultrasound KUB done to assess renal status," he had requested.

What followed was a flood of tweets by Maryam in which she sought to call attention to the claim that Sharif's renal condition is worsening and that his doctor "was made to wait [for] 2 hours outside [the] jail, was not allowed in and sent back".

At one point she even vowed to stand outside the jail tomorrow until access is granted to her, but later said she would forgo the plan on her father's instructions.

Govt's rebuttal

Maryam in her tweets claimed that letters requesting permission to visit her father had been sent by her without any response given in turn by the government.

This prompted the Punjab chief minister's spokesperson, Shahbaz Gill, to issue a series of video messages in which he talked in detail about Sharif's daily activities, food intake and health indicators such as blood pressure, rejecting all claims made by the former premier's daughter.

Gill, in response to Maryam's tweets about the letters, said that one had been sent on March 21 and was received today whereas the second she had tweeted about (dated March 22) had not been received as yet and will likely arrive in a day or two.

He called into question the alleged manner in which Sharif's health continued to be "politicised and used as a tool for vengeance" and regretted the way "false propaganda" was being spread, that too ahead of March 23.

The spokesperson assured Maryam that her father was receiving the best of medical attention and had not complained of anything in the past 12 days with the exception of a dull ache in the tooth for which a dental surgeon was called in immediately.

He said that blood and urine samples had already been taken and sent to the laboratory and promised that the results will be shared as soon as they arrive.

Maryam has accused the government multiple times of trying to prevent her and Sharif's physician from visiting him, with the government refuting all such claims each time.

Sharif is serving a seven-year imprisonment sentence in the Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case.

The 69-year-old underwent heart surgery in London in May 2016. He has undergone cardiac procedures twice during the past eight years.

In view of his health condition, the Punjab government has offered him treatment at the hospital of his choice which he has repeatedly declined. Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry says Sharif wants to go to London for his treatment.