Islamabad, July 14: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and daughter Maryam were shifted to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi today after they were arrested on their return to the country following the conviction in one of the three corruption cases against the powerful political family, weeks before the July 25 polls.
Sharif and Maryam were shifted to Adiala jail in separate armoured vehicles escorted by the police. According to jail manual, they can be medically examined at jail hospital. Maryam is expected to be moved later to Sihala Rest House which has been declared as sub-jail. Initially, it was said that the duo will be shifted by a helicopter, but the idea was dropped due to darkness.
The plane carrying Sharif, the supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz, and Maryam landed at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Airport at 9.15 pm (IST), nearly three hours late from the scheduled arrival.
According to an airport official, the father-daughter duo surrendered before a team of the country’s anti-graft body — The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — without any resistance. A special plane later carried Sharif and Maryam to Islamabad.
Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir issued judicial warrants against Sharif and Maryam without their mandatory presence in the court. The NAB had requested the court to condone their presence due to security reasons. The judge accepted the argument and deputed a local magistrate to visit the convicts to record their arrest and allow the NAB to hand them over to the jail authorities.
The Etihad Airways flight EY243 arrived in Lahore from Abu Dhabi. Earlier, Sharif and Maryam flew to the UAE capital from London, where Sharif’s wife Kulsoom, suffering from throat cancer, is battling for her life. Sharif reportedly refused to sit in the Rangers’ vehicle to get to the airport terminal. FIA officials took their passport for immigration. The duo was permitted to meet Sharif’s mother Begum Shamim Akhtar in the Haj Lounge.
The two were convicted on July 6 in the Evenfield properties case linked to the Sharif family’s ownership of four luxury flats in London. Both Sharif, 68, and Maryam, 44, have been to 10 and seven years in jail, respectively.
Source Tribune India
