Family members and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders met ousted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat jail on Thursday.

Among those who met Nawaz were Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ayaz Sadiq, Mushahid Hussain Syed, former president Mamnoon Hussain and others.

While speaking to reporters outside the prison, former president Hussain said they were there to express faith in Nawaz Sharif, adding that the former prime minister was not keeping in good health. Hussain was critical of the way Prime Minister Imran Khan was running the country, stressing that he should concentrate on the economy.

During the meeting with PML-N leaders, Nawaz Sharif was critical of how former president Mamnoon Hussain was treated at the prison. "Former prime ministers have been mistreated in Pakistan, however, this is the first time a former president has been treated this way. The former president was searched from point to point. Mamnoon Hussain is an elderly person. He was taken off the car and made to walk to the prison. In no other country is a former president treated like this,” Nawaz Sharif was quoted as saying.

PML-N leaders inquired about Nawaz Sharif’s health, to which the former prime minister replied that he had been told by the doctors of having an enlarged heart. “I told doctors that I have a big heart and am a big-hearted person.”

Nawaz Sharif has been imprisoned at Kot Lakhpat jail since December 2018 following his conviction in a corruption reference in line with the Supreme Court’s July 2017 verdict.