Ex-president, PML-N leaders, family face hurdles in meeting Nawaz

LAHORE: Maryam Nawaz, along with other family members and several leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), met Nawaz Sharif at Kot Lakhpat Jail, here on Thursday.

Prominent among others who reached the central jail for the weekly meeting with the incarcerated former premier were ex-president Mamnoon Hussain, Javed Hashmi, Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Senator Asif Kirmani, former governor Punjab Rafique Rajwana, former governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair, Ayaz Sadiq, Talal Chaudhry and Marriyum Aurangzaib etc.

Despite drizzle and a bit frosty weather, dozens of PML-N workers had reached the venue to express solidarity with their party quaid.

The authorities did not allow visitors to reach the jail gate on vehicles from the last police checkpoint, around one kilometre away from the jail gate. While some visitors took motorcycle rides and some hopped into auto-rickshaws to cover the distance, others preferred walk to reach jail. Among others Marriyum Aurangzaib travelled in a rickshaw. Unlike previous occasions, the PML-N workers showered rose-petals on the vehicle of Hamza Shahbaz and not the one in which Maryam Nawaz arrived there. A couple of days back, some party workers had set up a camp outside the jail to express solidarity with their leader.

The charged party workers kept chanting slogans in favour of their imprisoned leader especially whenever a senior party leader arrived at the police checkpoint to subsequent travel to the jail for the meeting.

Speaking to reporters outside the jail, former president Mamnoon Hussain said the party leaders and workers were there to express faith in Nawaz Sharif. To a question, he said former PM was not in good health. He said thousands of people had become jobless and asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to do something for the poor masses and put the economy on the right track.