Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, who was arrested within minutes after he touched down in Lahore on Friday evening has been shifted to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, while his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who was arrested along with him, was sent to Seihala Rest House, which is declared as a makeshift jail. Both the VIP convicts were provided “B” class facilities.
Nawaz Sharif and Maryam, who are guilty for corruption, were arrested ahead of the country’s general election on July 25, “Very small price to pay” to save the sanctity of the vote in Pakistan, said Sharif.
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.
Sharif and Maryam were allowed to meet Begum Shamim Akhtar, Sharif’s mother, at the airport before boarding a special flight to the capital Islamabad to serve their sentence at Adiala jail.
“The country is at a critical juncture right now. I have done what I could. I am aware that I have been sentenced to 10 years (in prison) and I will be taken to a jail cell straight away. But I want Pakistani nationals to know that I am doing this for you,” he said in the video released by Maryam.
The two were convicted on July 6 by a Pakistani accountability court for corrupt practices linked to his family’s purchase of four London flats and two more corruption cases related to Panama Paper scandal. Both Sharif, 68, and Maryam, 44, have been sentenced to Ten and seven years in jail.
