Maryam threatens hunger strike if Nawaz not allowed homemade food

PML-N leader says she cannot trust ‘oppressors, who can mix anything’ in her father’s food at Kot Lakhpat jail

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has threatened to go on a hunger strike outside Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore if her father Nawaz Sharif, who is languishing in the same prison, is not allowed to eat homemade food.

“I don’t trust these oppressors… they can mix anything in Mian Sahib’s food,” she said in a social media post on Monday. “This should not be misunderstood as a [hollow] threat because I will go through with it,” she added.

عدالت سے بھی مدد نا ملی تو میں کوٹلکھپت جیل کے باہر جا کر بیٹھوں گی۔ بھوک ہڑتال بھی کرنا پڑی تو کروں گی۔ ان ظالموں پر مجھے بھروسہ نہیں ہے۔ یہ میاں صاحب کے کھانے میں کچھ بھی ملا سکتے ہیں۔ اس بات کو دھمکی نا سمجھا جائے کیونکہ میں یہ کر گزروں گی۔ https://t.co/it4AIFvuM7

— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) July 8, 2019

The daughter of three-time prime minister, who has been put behind bars for seven years in AL-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference by an accountability court, said the ‘fake government’ had banned home-cooked meals for Nawaz, who she said has refused to consume the prison food due to his deteriorating health.

Superior judiciary should take notice of video scandal: PM

The PML-N leader said the staff tasked with taking food for the former premier had been awaiting permission from jail authorities while standing outside the prison for the last five hours. She also warned the authorities concerned that she would approach the court of law if the ban on homemade meals was not lifted within the next 24 hours.

Maryam has stirred a political storm after bringing forward a video clip of accountability court judge Arshad Malik, in which he allegedly confessed convicting former PM Nawaz Sharif under duress.

She, at an all-revealing news conference, flanked by senior most party leaders in Lahore on Saturday, claimed that an incriminating video was used to force the judge give a desired verdict in Al-Azizia corruption reference against her father.

Judge debunks 'doctored' video recording

Judge Malik could be heard in the video as saying that there was “no proof of corruption against the deposed premier” in the December 24 Al-Azizia reference, and that he was blackmailed into giving a verdict against Sharif.

However, he refuted the PML-N claim that he was blackmailed into jailing Sharif a day later, maintaining that the video revealed by the party as evidence was fake and it was in fact  the party leadership that tried to bribe and pressure him to rule in favour of its supreme leader.