Was Given Rat-Contaminated Food In Jail: Maryam Nawaz

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice President Maryam Nawaz on Thursday accused the federal government of forcing her to consume “rat-contaminated food” when she was incarcerated in the Punjab capital’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.

According to Geo News, Maryam, Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, revealed this information in an informal conversation with journalists where she said that the medication given to her was “not fit for use at all”.

“I was forced to take fungus-infected medicines in prison,” she claimed. This comes after the PML-N vice president alleged that there were cameras installed inside her cell and her bathroom.

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.

“My grandparents loved Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif very much and added that Nawaz and her doctors advised against her travelling to London despite ill-health.

Maryam termed the passing away of her grandmother as “a great shock to the Sharif family” further lambasting the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government that they had not informed her about her grandmother’s passing when she was in Peshawar addressing the Pakistan Democratic Movement rally.

“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 jalsa. She also told former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan.

“My father and family kept trying to contact me but were unable to do so,” she had said, accusing the PTI-led government for being inconsiderate and inhumane via a Twitter post on Sunday.

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.”(ANI)