LAHORE   -   PML-N Vice President Mary­am Nawaz on Tuesday issued an apology and deleted a tweet regarding slain journalist Arshad Sharif after it was deemed “insensitive and shameful” and drew widespread condemnation from politicians, journalists and activists.

Sharif was shot dead in Kenya allegedly by the local police on Sunday night. Maryam, at around 3pm on Tuesday, retweeted a tweet which claimed that Sharif, during his lifetime, had mocked the circumstances of PML-N su­premo Nawaz Sharif’s mother’s death only to meet a similar end himself. The PML-N leader retweeted the post with the cap­tion, “This is a lesson for man­kind that we must all imbibe.” Reacting to Maryam’s now de­leted comment, Sharif’s widow Javeria Siddique said: “Have some shame Maryam and fear God.” Anchorperson and senior journalist Shahzeb Khanzada said Maryam’s tweet was highly condemnable and a “shame­ful act”. “A journalist has been murdered. This is your govern­ment. This is your government’s responsibility to bring him jus­tice and at this moment you are showing your mindset,” he said during private TV’s transmis­sion. After catching flak on both social and conventional media, Maryam, in a separate tweet is­sued eight hours after her origi­nal tweet, said that she was “un­doing the tweet” and apologised for the “hurt it may have caused to the aggrieved which was nev­er my intention”. “My tweet was not aimed at mocking someone but about learning our lessons from the past,” she said.