LAHORE - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was allowed weekly meeting with his family members and party workers at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail on yesterday.
Nawaz Sharif’s mother Shamim Akhtar and daughter Maryam Nawaz spent a few hours with him and then left. During their meeting, Maryam served homemade food to her father. PML-N leaders including Pervaiz Rashid, Khurram Dasatgir and Tallal Chaudhry also among those who met the three-time PM in prison on Thursday.
The meeting took place a day after Nawaz Sharif was rushed to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology for urgent treatment as he felt severe pain in chest. Following medical tests, he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail.
Maryam Nawaz took to Twitter and expressed serious concerns over the deteriorating health condition of her father stating that the family was being kept in the dark. However, a Punjab government spokesman Thursday rejected her claims stating that family members were never stopped from meeting Nawaz Sharif in the jail. He also said that process to constitute a larger medical board was started.
According to party sources, Nawaz Sharif used Mirza Ghalib’s poetry to explain his health condition in the Kot Lakhpat Jail. When one of the party leaders asked about his health, Nawaz Sharif said, “Unke dekhney se jo ajati hai munh par ronak, Who samajhtey hain ke beemar ka haal achcha hai.”
Reportedly, the former PM also complained that he was not shown any list of visitors by jail administration. “I shall welcome anyone who comes here,” he said. According to jail officials, names of all important visitors are sent to Nawaz Sharif but the meeting is arranged only with his permission. A source in the Prison Department claimed that almost all family members are allowed to visit Nawaz Sharif on every Thursday.
During his brief chat with the party workers, Nawaz Sharif said he took measures for economic development and betterment of the country but he is depressed because of the current economic crisis.
Sharif is enjoying better-class in the jail with facilities like bed, chair, heater, newspapers, and TV.
Thursday is fixed for Nawaz’s visitors by jail authorities. Sharif is serving a seven-year term in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail on corruption charges.
The former prime minister said that he left no stone unturned in making China-Pakistan Economic Corridor a reality for Pakistan’s prosperity. “It would be a great loss to the country if the CPEC is halted,” he said.
Earlier, Maryam Nawaz expressed serious concerns over the health condition of her father and complained that even the doctors were being denied access to Sharif. Reacting to a media report, which claimed that Nawaz Sharif suffered heart attack in the jail, she tweeted, “This is not entirely untrue. He has had multiple episodes in the last few days which he has been treating with sublingual sprays & tablets. They took him back to jail yesterday, conveniently turning a blind eye to the recommendations of the doctors and boards.”
Also she said, “Not one but THREE independent medical boards with top specialists on them constituted by the government itself have all examined him & raised the alarm. All three. The risk is huge.”
On the other hand, a spokesman for the Punjab Chief Minister Dr Shahbaz Gill said that Sharif family has never been stopped by the Punjab government from meeting Nawaz Sharif in jail. In a tweet, Dr Shahbaz Gill on Thursday said that Sharif family could meet him anytime during the jail timings. Nawaz Sharif is being medically treated according to the recommendations of a board of doctors and his personal physician.
He alleged that PML-N leaders issued concocted and fabricated statements for political sympathies. He said they were spreading fake news through media that Nawaz Sharif Sahib was not being given proper medical aid and that he was not in contact with his family.
“The reality is that no one in the Sharif family has ever been stopped to meet him. They can meet him whenever they desire. Meetings with Nawaz Sharif are held on every Thursday at 9:00 am and meetings are also held on days when Nawaz Sharif desires so. They should contact if they have any trouble and their meeting could be arranged,” he explained, adding that jail doctor examined Nawaz Sharif on daily basis.
He said Nawaz Sharif’s personal physician had also recommended certain medical tests after check-up.
“On the basis of it, a PIC Board has visited the jail and recommended some medical tests after examining him. After it, he was brought to PIC for medical checkup. PIC board has recommended constituting a larger board including PIMS doctors to examine Nawaz Sharif. Along with it, the board has proposed food without salt having low protein and this was immediately implemented upon. Similarly, the process of constituting a larger board has also been started”, he said.
Dr. Shahbaz Gill requested the Sharif family not to spread fake news stating that it was nothing but a blackmailing and an attempt to exploit illness of the party leader.
On Thursday, a video went viral on social media showing Sharif’s mother Shamim Akhtar in an emotional condition with prayers on lips as she arrived outside the jail to meet her son. In this footage shot by mobile phone, the old woman could be seen sitting inside a car and praying for her son.
Also, dozens of party workers chanted slogans in favour of Nawaz Sharif as leaders of the second largest political party reached outside the prison for the weekly meeting on Thursday. Last week, Prime Minister Azad Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider, President PML-N (KP) Ameer Muqam, former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Parliamentarians including Ayaz Sadiq, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pervaiz Malik, Ali Pervaiz Malik, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rahman, Ghazali Butt, and Chaudhry Shahbaz Ahmed visited the jail and met their leader.
