LONDON: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been spotted enjoying tea with members of his family outside his son’s office near Hyde Park – after over two months of isolation following the COVID-19 lockdown.
The photo, seen circulating on social media, shows Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif taking tea with his grandchildren in the garden of Hasan Nawaz Sharif’s Hyde Park Place office.
This is the first time that the PML-N supremo has left his apartment to go out in public after the COVID-19 outbreak hit London, a Sharif family source said.
The source said that Nawaz Sharif took a walk from Park Lane flats to the office – ten minutes away.
As soon as the photo came on media, a war of words broke out between PML-N leaders and PTI ministers and advisers.
Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said how the people in Pakistan could trust the accountability system. He said that such photos make a mockery of the country’s justice system, law and administration.
Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Dr Shahbaz Gill said on Twitter, “These people consider the nation as fool. He left for London with a false statement. The three-time prime minister lacks moral strength; they flee the country on the basis of falsehood. Those people are pitiable who still hear their false utterances and consider them their leaders.”
Gill said that public and the institutions were told lies. The level of morality is that at first they try to hide their lies then brag about them, he added.
Maryam Nawaz broke her silence after a long time and responded to critics.
The PML-N Vice President and daughter of Nawaz Sharif said that her father’s picture on social media was not meant for publicity but for humiliation, which turned upside down like every time.
Maryam Nawaz said that for those who could force their way into the ICU and try to make pictures of her unconscious mother, it is not difficult for those to take pictures of ladies and children’s of Nawaz Sharif’s family. “If it was such a good deed, why you hid like a coward,” she asked the anonymous person who first made the picture.
Nawaz Sharif’s family sources have said that doctors had advised the family to keep him in isolation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak due to his advanced age. In January this year, a storm started in Pakistani politics after another picture of the former prime minister came out in which he was seen having a dinner at an Arab restaurant. Firdous Ashiq Awan had announced that British government will be asked to send Nawaz Sharif back through a letter but nothing happened after that.
Meanwhile, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif's personal physician Dr Adnan left London to come back to his country on Saturday .
According to details, Dr Adnan is traveling alongside Maryam Nawaz's daughter.
Dr Adnan refused to discuss Nawaz Sharif's medical progress at the airport although he did say that his journey back to Pakistan was temporary and he would return to London and tend to his patient Mian Nawaz Sharif soon. Dr Adnan is returning to Pakistan after spending six months in London.
