Nawaz gets to meet Maryam for first time since arrest

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Pervaiz Rasheed on Thursday said that convicted ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were allowed to meet for the first time since their arrest from Lahore airport last week.

Addressing the media outside the Adiala Jail, Pervaiz said that ‘today is the first day the father and daughter met in jail’.

“The other party leaders also met the Sharif family on Thursday,” Pervaiz said.

“I have served jail sentences during every military regime,” the former information minister said, adding that, “I am well aware of one’s rights in prison. Every prisoner has the right of movement inside the jail from sunrise to sunset.”

He said that the former PM and his daughter’s sentences do not mention solitary confinement. “If they are not being allowed to meet, it means they are being kept in solitary confinement,” he said. “No court has sentenced them to solitary confinement. They should get their basic rights in jail.”

Earlier, he criticised the alleged dual standards of justice, citing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s request to the National Accountability Bureau on Wednesday to appear before it in the helicopter misuse investigation after the election.

“Imran has the liberty to write his own judgments,” he alleged further.

He said that the slogan of ‘Vote ko izzat do [Respect the vote]’ is considered a crime these days. “[Jailed PML-N leader] Qamarul Islam also says that no jail or sentence can deter them from heading towards their destination,” said Rasheed. “You all have to vote for the tiger on July 25 to fight this injustice. It is the right of the Pakistani people to counter all of Imran Khan’s nefarious designs by voting for the tiger on July 25.”

Nawaz and Maryam were arrested upon their return to the country on July 13.