LAHORE: The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has criticised the government for not allowing the family to meet Nawaz Sharif in jail even on the third day of Eid.

Condemning the denial of permission, PML-N spokes­person Marriyum Aurang­zeb said in a statement that by adopting such tactics Prime Minister Imran Khan was “taking revenge for his (PM’s) incompetence and ineptness”.

She regretted that Mr Khan didn’t let Mr Sharif meet his mother and daughter on the Eid days, saying “such tactics won’t lessen your incompetence and ineptness”.

The PML-N spokesperson said Mr Sharif executed development projects worth billions of rupees but not a single rupee of corruption could be established against him. Ms Aurangzeb also counted other achievements of Sharif-led PML-N government, including 11,000MW power generation and taking the GDP growth up to 5.8pc.

Meanwhile, Punjab government spokesperson Dr Shahbaz Gill said that the PML-N had been left with no issue other than Mr Sharif’s health. He was of the view “Mian Sahib is quite healthy and living a normal life in jail”.

He claimed that Mr Sharif was denied a meeting with his family because of vacation in the jail as per SOP of the home and jail departments. He said Mr Sharif had met his family and over 225 party leaders and workers before Eid, while the family could meet him again on Saturday (today) as per jail authorities.

Referring to the former prime minister’s routine of spending the last days of Ramazan and Eid in Saudi Arabia, Mr Gill said for the first time Mian Sahib spent Eid days in Pakistan only because he is imprisoned. “Marriyum Aurangzeb is, perhaps, forgetting the reason behind imprisonment of Nawaz Sharif.”

He said Mr Sharif was in jail because of being convicted by a court of law.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2019