PML-N leaders, workers barred from meeting Nawaz

Shehbaz lashes out at PM Imran after Kot Lakhpat officials only allowed family members to meet former premier

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday accused the incumbent government of not letting party leaders and members meet Nawaz Sharif in Kot Lakhpat prison.

Addressing party workers and supporters outside Lahore's prison, Shehbaz alleged, “Party workers want to meet their leader but Prime Minister Imran Khan is not allowing people to meet him. This drama will not last long”.



Senior PML-N leaders, including former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif and other parliamentarians, had also reached the prison to meet Nawaz. However, the authorities only allowed Nawaz's immediate family members to meet the former prime minister.

Shehbaz urged them and party workers to stay firm and calm.

“Time is near when Imran Khan will be in the court of the people. PML-N leaders are here for the weekly meeting. Imran Khan, let them meet their leader,” said Shehbaz during his brief address.

Commenting on the recent arrest of some PML-N leaders, the PML-N president alleged that Rana Sanaullah and Salman Rafique were being deprived of all basic rights.

An accountability court in 2018, sentenced the former premier to seven-year rigorous imprisonment after finding him guilty in the Al-Azizia reference, one of the three graft cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in line with an apex court order.



Nawaz and his family members were also convicted in Avenfield case. However, the accountability court judge Muhammad Arshad Malik acquitted Nawaz in Flagship reference.

The Supreme Court on July 28, 2017, had disqualified Nawaz in the Panama Papers case and ordered the NAB to file separate cases which were respectively called Avenfiled, Al-Azizia and Flagship references.