LAHORE - With the sad demise of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz in London, tragedy has hit the Sharif family for the second time on a foreign land.

Previously, the Sharif family was in exile when the family elder, Mian Muhammad Sharif, died of cardiac arrest in Jeddah way back in 2004.

Barring Hamza Shehbaz Sharif who was in Pakistan at that time, rest of the Sharif family members were not allowed to come to Pakistan to attend the last rituals of their family head. Former president General Pervez Musharraf was then criticised by many for this inhuman attitude. Hamza Shehbaz was the only close relation present at the time of Mian Sharif’s burial at Jati Umra though senior PML-N leaders were also present.

Now, Begum Kulsoom Nawaz has passed away in London at a time when her husband Mian Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar happen to be in prison though they are most likely to be released on parole to be part of her funeral.

But they were not on her side when she breathed her last at a London hospital Tuesday morning (local time). According to Hussain Nawaz, her mother kept asking about them whenever she gained consciousness.

Her two sons, Hussain Nawaz and Hasan Nawaz are less likely to travel to Pakistan to bury their mother. It is because there is greater likelihood of their being arrested on return by the law enforcement agencies for their alleged involvement in NAB cases.

Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz have plans to leave for London on the first available flight to take the dead body of Begum Kulsoom back home. Earlier in 2004, when the dead body of Mian Sharif was brought from Jeddah to Karachi and then flown to Lahore, it was not handed over to Hamza Shehbaz and the PML-N leaders present at the airport. It was flown directly to Jati Umra, Raiwind, by a helicopter on the plea that a caretaker was already coming from Jeddah along with the body.

If the Sharif family members including Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz were not allowed to attend the funeral of late Mian Sharif in Pakistan, the two sons of Begum Kulsoom will not be in the country for a different reason though.

Also, in a rare coincidence, Begum Kulsoom Nawaz’s death has coincided with the death anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (September 11); whereas the birth date of her husband and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif coincides with the birth anniversary of Father of the Nation (December 25).

2nd tragedy hits Sharifs in foreign land