Kulsoom Nawaz leaves her Islamabad residence prior to departing the country on December 10, 2000.

:: A Pakistani official says former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s wife will run for a seat in parliament despite having been diagnosed with throat cancer.

Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb says Kulsoom Nawaz is being treated at a London hospital and plans to return to Pakistan for the vote next month in Lahore.

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The minister told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Nawaz has an early stage of the cancer and called her a “courageous woman.”

Earlier this month, Sharif’s ruling party said Nawaz would take part in the election, running for the same seat left vacant after her husband was disqualified from office by the Supreme Court for concealing assets.

The military says army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke to Sharif over the telephone, wishing his wife a speedy recovery.