Nawaz Sharif getting all facilities he is entitled to in jail says Punjab govt

Islamabad, July 20: Jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif is getting all the facilities he is entitled to under the law, the government in Pakistan's Punjab province said today.

The clarification was issued after former chief minister and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif complained that his elder brother Sharif has been kept in "abysmal conditions" in the Adiala jail.

Punjab Information Minister Ahmed Waqas Riaz told the media that Sharif was given all facilities that he was entitled to.

Separately, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prisons, Malik Mubashir, issued a statement to provide the list of facilities given to Sharif.

Mubashir said that Sharif was jailed in a separate cell in a Better Class portion of the jail and has been issued a steel bed, table, chair, newspapers, sheets for his personal bed, personal clothes, one ceiling fan, two bracket fans and toiletries. He has also been allowed to keep a 21-inch TV.

He also has been provided adequate space to take a walk and he "regularly goes for a stroll in the lawn attached to his cell".

Talking about medical facilities, he said that the jail's medical staff and Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) consultants regularly conduct his medical check-up and his health is "satisfactory".

He said that a special cook has been providing the diet recommended for him by an RIC nutritionist, which includes fruits, salad, dates and qeema (minced meat).

The family members and friends can meet him on Thursdays while his lawyers can meet him on any one day of the week.

Sharif, 68, and his daughter Maryam, 44, were arrested in Lahore on July 13 on their arrival from London after an accountability court found them guilty over his family's ownership of four luxury flats in London. They were later taken to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Both Sharif and Maryam have been sentenced by an accountability court to 10 and 7 years in prison respectively for corruption charges linked to Panama Papers scandal.

Sharif, a three-time prime minister, has been one of the country's leading politicians for most of the past 30 years. He remains popular, especially in Punjab, the most populous and electorally significant province.