Pakistan

Shibli Faraz urges PML-N not to politicise Begum Shamim Akhtar's death

Says there are no restrictions on Nawaz and his sons barring them from coming to Pakistan

NEWS DESK November 24, 2020

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz addressing a press conference in Islamabad PHOTO: PID/FILE

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Tuesday urged former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons and former finance minister Ishq Dar to attend the funeral of Begum Shamim Akhtar in Pakistan and not politicise the issue.

“There is no restriction on them to come to Pakistan,” the information minister said in a tweet.

نواز شریف، ان کے سمدھی اسحاق ڈار اور صاحبزادوں حسن اور حسین کے پاکستان آنے پر کوئی قدغن نہیں۔وہ تشریف لائیں اور مرحومہ بیگم شمیم اختر صاحبہ کے جنازے میں شرکت فرما کر ثواب دارین حاصل کریں ۔ریاستی جبر کا پروپیگنڈہ دانستہ اس معاملے میں سیاست کرنا ہے۔ آپ کسے بے وقوف بنا رہے ہیں؟
— Senator Shibli Faraz (@shiblifaraz) November 24, 2020

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and party president Shehbaz Sharif's nonagenarian mother, Begum Shamim Akhtar, passed away in London on November 22.

She had left for London in February despite being unwell to be with Sharif, who is there for medical treatment since late last year.

According to party sources, Sharif and his sons are unlikely to come to Pakistan to attend her funeral prayers, which would be arranged in Lahore by the PML-N supremo’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and husband Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar.

The news of her grandmother’s demise reached Maryam, who is also the PML-N vice president, while she was present at the 11-party opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) rally in Peshawar on November 22.

She left the venue after apologising to the crowd for being unable to address the rally and requested party activists and supporters to pray for the departed soul and for the early recovery of her ailing father.

Later, in a tweet, Maryam lamented the government’s attitude following the demise of her grandmother.

“No government official was humane enough to inform me of my grandmother's death. I have requested Mian Sahib [Nawaz Sharif] not to come back [to Pakistan] at all. These are tyrants and vengeful blind people from whom no kind of gentlemanship is expected,” she wrote on her official Twitter handle.