Begum Shamim laid to rest in Raiwind

Political workers, PML-N leaders attend the funeral prayers in Lahore

LAHORE:

The funeral prayers of Begum Shamim Akhtar – the mother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother former chief minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif – were offered in Lahore on Saturday.

After the funeral prayers, attended by a large number of political workers and leaders of PML-N, the body was taken to Jati Umrah graveyard, where she was laid to rest.

She has been buried in Jati Umrah, alongside her late husband Mian Sharif and daughter-in-law [of son Abbas Sharif] Kulsoom Nawaz.

Earlier today, the body of Begum Shamim Akhtar arrived in Lahore. The body was brought to Lahore on a special flight from London and was received by Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz.

A day earlier, Begum Shamim's funeral prayer was also held at the Regent's Park mosque in London.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, other family members and former finance minister Ishaq Dar were in attendance besides other colleagues. Keeping in view the coronavirus SOPs, only 30 people were allowed inside the mosque for the funeral prayer.

A little while before the funeral prayer, Maryam Nawaz – the PML-N's vice-president and daughter of Nawaz Sharif – tweeted a picture of her father standing beside his mother's body. "A son who deserves his mother's prayers, surrendering his mother to his Allah," she wrote in the tweet.

In view of her funeral scheduled to be held in Lahore, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz were released from jail on parole for five days.