RAWALPINDI - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif met with his legal team in Adiala Jail on Saturday. During the meeting, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar were also present in the conference room.
The legal team comprised Khawaja Haris Advocate, Saad Hashmi Advocate, Amjad Pervaiz Advocate, Zafir Khan Advocate and Azam Tarar Advocate.
The team discussed with them the cases pending with the accountability court and Islamabad High Court.
A member of legal team, while talking to The Nation, said the jail authorities are depriving the former prime minister of basic facilities and not permitting him even to use pen and paper in his cell.
He said the jail authorities have been keeping the three in isolation and not allowing them to meet anyone in the jail.
However, despite all these injustices by the jail authorities, the morale and spirit of Nawaz Sharif is very high and he adhered to his stance of ‘giving respect to vote’, he said.
He said the health of Nawaz Sharif is good and he is committed to fight injustice being committed to him and his family members. “We are not coward, and we returned to Pakistan to fighting injustice,” he quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying.
He said Nawaz Sharif shared jokes with them and also recited poetry about the current political situation in the country.
Amjad Pervaiz, the counsel of Maryam Nawaz, while talking to media men outside the Adiala Jail, said the legal team met Nawaz Sharif and discussed with him the cases pending.
He said the facilities being provided to Nawaz Sharif, Maryam and Capt Safdar are not according to the jail manual. He said Safdar is a cardiac patient and his medical record is also available. “Neither Maryam nor Safdar wants any other facility other than the one in jail,” he added.
Meanwhile, a medical team also visited Adiala Jail and conducted medical check-up of Safdar, who was diagnosed with infection in ear and throat.
A doctor of the ENT Department at District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital was brought to the jail in an ambulance of Rescue 1122. The doctor examined the patient and suggested him medicines. A jail official told The Nation that that Safdar was provided medical treatment inside the jail and he would not be taken to hospital outside.
On the other hand, leaders and workers of PML-N Women Wing Chakwal also visited Adiala Jail and laid floral wreaths at the entry gate to express solidarity with Maryam Nawaz. The women wing was led by Ifat Liaqat and Nuzhat Yasmin.
In another major development, a top government functionary secretly visited the Adiala Jail last Thursday night and tried to persuade Nawaz Sharif to shift to Sihala Rest House along with his daughter Maryam and Capt Safdar but the former premier denied the offer, sources disclosed to The Nation on Saturday.
The jail administration had also kept the name of the government official and his meeting with Nawaz Sharif secret.
According to sources, a top government functionary had arrived in the Adiala Jail last Thursday at 11pm and was taken to the conference room by the jail authorities where he met with Nawaz Sharif.
“The top gun of the government has told the former premier to convince his daughter and son-in-law for shifting to Sihala Rest House as the jail is not safe for them,” the sources said.
However, Nawaz categorically refused to accept the offer and told the government official in clear words that he or his daughter and son-in-law would not leave Adiala Jail for any other place, the sources said.
The meeting between the government official and the deposed prime minister lasted for more than two hours during which the former could not convince the latter for leaving the Adiala Jail, the sources claimed. They said that security of Adiala Jail has also been beefed up ahead of the government official’s meeting with the ex-premier.
A member of the legal team, which met Nawaz Sharif in Adiala Jail on Saturday, also confirmed that his client shared with him the details of his meeting with a government official in the jail. He said the official offered him to shift from Adiala Jail to Sihala Rest House.
“A top functionary of the government met me on Thursday late night who offered me to shift to Sihala Rest House along with Maryam and Safdar but I rejected his offer. I don’t know who was the guy and for which department he works,” the legal team member quoted Nawaz Sharif as saying.
Superintendent Adiala Jail Saeed Ullah Gondal did not respond to question sent by this correspondent on his Whatsapp regarding the visit of the government functionary and his meeting with Nawaz Sharif.
MARYAM’S FIRST MESSAGE
NNI adds: For the first time in a week a tweet was posted from the official Twitter handle of Maryam Nawaz. The first tweet was a snippet from a revolutionary poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
According to a private TV channel, Junaid Safdar, son of Maryam Nawaz, is handling her twitter account.