RAWALPINDI  -  Adiala jail authorities have allotted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz with “prisoner numbers”, sources said on Sunday.

An accountability court had awarded 10-year and seven-year vigorous imprisonment respectively to Sharif and Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield reference.

According to sources, the jail authorities have marked Sharif with prisoner number “3421” by detaining him in cell number 11. Similarly, Maryam Nawaz has been given prisoner number “3422” by the jail authorities, they said.

The sources also said that Maryam Nawaz refused to take B-class facility in the jail and preferred to stay in the general barrack with other women inmates.

They said that the jail authorities have also provided two cooks to Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.

“From now onwards, the detainees can opt for buying fruit, vegetables and other food items of their own choice from the jail grocery or from outside through the visitors and ask the cooks to prepare food of their own choice in the cells,” the sources said.

Moreover, two helpers had been provided to Sharif and one to Maryam Nawaz to carry out the rigorous schedule in the cells. They said Sharif has been enjoying B-class in the jail and had not so far applied to the jail superintendent to change his category.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities stopped a former PML-N minister and a former MPA from meeting Sharif and Maryam.

According to the sources, former federal minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and ex-MPA Begum Tehseen Fawad had showed up at the Adiala jail on Sunday and requested the authorities to allow them to have a meeting with Sharif and Maryam. However, Jail Superintendent Saeed Ullah Gondal denied their request and did not allow them to have a meeting with the father and daughter.

Gondal was not available for his comments on the issue.

On the other hand, the jail authorities also stopped Khadim Ali Yousaf Zai, a PML-N candidate from PK-78 Peshawar, from meeting Sharif in the jail. The PML-N candidate showered rose petals outside the jail and laid a floral wreath and left the venue.

Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi police high-ups failed to provide quality food to the policemen who had been deputed around Adiala jail during the shifting of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam by the NAB team.

The sources said the police high-ups had deployed a total of 24 police personnel to the maintain law and order situation on Adiala Road and around the jail on July 13, when the former premier along with his daughter was being transported to the jail.

The sources said the mess incharge of RI police purchased each packet of Pulao for Rs100 from Saddar and distributed among the cops performing the duty. They said the cops complained about the quality of rice sans chicken pieces and kebabs. The sources said that the water bottles distributed among the cops were also of low quality.

City Police Officer Abbas Ahsan, however, when contacted, said “I will check the prices. “It cannot be true because no bills have so far been processed for reimbursement,” he said, adding the quality of food provided to the cops would also be checked at the food point and prompt action would be taken against the responsible.

 

NAWAZ’S MESSAGE

 

Special Reporter from Lahore adds: Nawaz Sharif said that he and Maryam were imprisoned to keep them away from their supporters.

“They don’t know this jail and imprisonment cannot disassociate me from my supporters,” Nawaz said in an audio message to his supporters from Adiala Jail on Sunday.

“No dictator could break this relationship in the past and those pulling the strings will not be able to do this in future as well,” Nawaz vowed.

He appealed the people of Pakistan to pray for his wife Kalsoom Nawaz. “We have to get rid of this decades old system. Time has come that people should break these chains now,” he added.

Nawaz further said that he came back to Pakistan with an aim to give respect to vote. He urged his supporters to spread this campaign across the country and teach a lesson to those who humiliated the respect of vote.

He appealed party workers to keep up the preparation for elections.

 

Cooks, helpers provided to Nawaz, Maryam

 

 

ISRAR AHMED