Lahore: PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday claimed that she was fed “rat-contaminated food” when she was incarcerated in the Punjab capital’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.
In an informal conversation with journalists, Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, complained of the medication she was given in the prison, saying it was “not fit for use at all”.
“I was forced to take fungus-infected medicines in prison,” she claimed.
Maryam had also alleged the installation of cameras in her jail cell.
Maryam Nawaz was arrested in Lahore in a money laundering case. Maryam said earlier this month, “I have gone to jail twice and if I speak about how I, a woman, was treated in jail, they will not have the audacity to show their faces,” she said, referring to the government.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior, Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar denied the PML-N vice president’s claims of consuming the ‘rat contaminated food’ while in prison.
“This woman’s food always came [prepared] from home,” Akbar said and added “So either the rat belonged to the family or they are lying according to the ‘family tradition’. By the way, these rats seem to be quite ‘Sharif’ [innocent] that they leave food behind,” the PM’s adviser said.
Speaking about her grandmother Begum Shamim Akhtar, who had passed away last week, the leader said that she spoke to her over a video call two or three days prior to her death.
“My grandmother’s memory had become weak. The last time I talked to my grandmother, she was asking if I had been released from jail; my grandmother thought I was still in prison,” Maryam said while referring to the time she was incarcerated in the Central Jail Lahore and was released in November last year.
Maryam termed the passing away of her grandmother as “a great shock to the Sharif family” further lambasting the Imran Khan-led Pakistan government that they had not informed her about her grandmother’s passing. She (Maryam) was addressing the Pakistan Democratic Movement rally at that time.
“My son, Junaid Safdar, had left Lahore for Peshawar to inform me,” she said and added that there was no telephone contact at the PDM rally. She also told former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan.
Maryam further raised concerns regarding Pakistan’s future saying that the Imran Khan government has to go. “With the state the country is in right now, the government has to go. My analysis is that the situation is very bad and the current government can no longer function,” she said.
She added, “A gas crisis is on the horizon and electricity bills are already worth Rs100,000 and over… Voices from within arise when they [the government] supersede others.”