ISLAMABAD: A pre-arranged meeting between lawyers and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz was cancelled by authorities at Adiala Jail on Thursday.
Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris and Maryam’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz were scheduled to meet with their clients at 11am. Upon arriving at the jail, they were notified via a phone call that their meeting had been cancelled, Pervaiz said. The lawyers were told by the jail authorities that they would be informed of a new time for the meeting later.
Kh Haris told a private TV channel that the legal team comprising Amjad Pervaiz, Barrister Saad Hashmi and Zafir Khan had been requesting jail authorities since the day before to allow them to meet their clients in jail so that they can confer with them regarding their future strategy. “We requested the jail authorities to allow us to meet on Wednesday but we were not allowed [to meet them],” he said, adding, “Eventually we were asked to come on Thursday at 11am to meet Mian Sahib, etc at Adiala Jail. While we were on our way and had almost reached, we received a call from the jail superintendent and were asked not to come as the meeting had been unilaterally cancelled.”
According to Haris, an Adiala Jail assistant superintendent had explained that the lawyers meeting had been cancelled since Thursday was specified for visit by family members and others. He claimed that the jail administration had asked them to suggest a date for another meeting but were not giving them any assurance that the same would not happen with their next meeting.
Meanwhile, members of Sharif family and PML-N leaders held meeting with Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz in Adiala Jail.
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shahbaz, Pervez Rasheed, Ayaz Sadiq, Governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair, Raja Zafarul Haq, Khurram Dastagir, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Maryam Aurangzeb and others met the former prime minister.
Addressing media outside Adiala Jail, Senator Pervaiz Rasheed lamented that it was the first time that Maryam Nawaz met her father after their arrest. He claimed that the Sharif family was in the same spirits as they were before being jailed.
In an interesting development, the head warden of Adiala jail has been replaced after video of him embracing Nawaz Sharif came into notice.
The warden was deployed on duty at the barrack of Nawaz Sharif. No one is allowed to access the barrack of Nawaz. However, the warden went inside and hugged Nawaz and received a pat on his back from the former prime minister.
Their meeting was noticed by the monitoring team from security cameras installed in the jail. The administration was informed of the incident after which IG Prisons himself watched the video and strictly admonished the warden.
Published in Daily Times, July 20th 2018.
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