Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that she was given “rat-infested food” by Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail staff during her imprisonment.
In a conversation with journalists at Jati Umrah, the PML-N leader claimed that not only her food was contaminated, but she was also provided with medications that were rotten due to fungus. “They were not fit for use at all,” she claimed.
Maryam, whose popularity has quadrupled since the disqualification of her father ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case, has gone to jail twice — once after conviction in the Avenfield case, second time was her alleged involvement in a sugar mills scam.
The new accusations against the government came a fortnight after the PML-N VP claimed that cameras were installed in her jail room to humiliate her. The politician had said that if she revealed the details about how she and other female inmates were treated during detention, “they” will find no place to hide their faces.
“I don’t want to hide behind these incidents at all. I’m struggling today, so I don’t want to show that I was affected; I don’t want to cry today that I have been abused,” she had said.
Responding to the claim that Maryam was fed contaminated food, PM’s aide on accountability Shahzad Akbar accused the PML-N leader of concealing the truth. He said: “It’s on record that the food Maryam used to get in jail came from her home.” He said either Maryam is lying about it or the Sharifs’ residence is infested with rats.
MARYAM IN JAIL:
On July 6, 2018, Maryam was sentenced to seven years in jail by the NAB on corruption charges in the Avenfield reference case.
The court had held that trust deeds presented by Maryam before the apex court were fake and had been tampered with. As a result, she was disqualified from contesting elections for 10 years.
The next day, Maryam announced that she would return to Pakistan on July 13 to file an appeal against the decision. The same day, NAB announced to arrest her and Nawaz Sharif upon their arrival in Pakistan.
She, along with her father, was taken into custody on July 13 upon their arrival at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport and were airlifted to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.
On July 26, she challenged her sentence in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and filed a petition for bail. The next day, the court rejected her request for release on bail and adjourned the hearing till the end of the 2018 general election on July 25.
While she was released following the suspension of the verdict against her father, husband and herself by the IHC, Maryam was once again arrested in August 2019 over Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption charges; this time upon her arrival at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore to see Nawaz, who was serving his sentence in a separate corruption case.
In November 2019, Maryam was released on bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
