LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz were released on Friday on a five-day parole facilitating their participation in the last rites of his mother.

Begum Shamim Akhtar passed away on Sunday in London, where her elder son and former premier Nawaz Sharif along with other family members attended her funeral on Friday.

As the body is expected to reach Lahore on Saturday morning, Shehbaz and his son soon after being released from Kot Lakhpat jail met party leaders and oversaw arrangements for her burial in Jati Umra, Raiwind.

They had been on judicial remand in money laundering and income beyond means cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The PML-N had sought their release on a two-week parole, but the government declined it.

Burial of Begum Akhtar at Jati Umra

Funeral prayers for Begum Akhtar will be offered after Zuhr on Saturday at the Sharif Medical City in Raiwind, while only the Sharif family members at Jati Umra will attend her Qul on Sunday. She will be buried next to the grave of her husband Mian Sharif at the Jati Umra estate of the Sharifs.

Punjab PML-N president Rana Sanaullah said religious scholar Raghib Naeemi would lead the funeral prayers for Begum Akhtar.

PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers were doing politics over the death of Nawaz Sharif’s mother. It was the PTI government apathy that it did not allow two-week parole to Shehbaz Sharif. “Parole is not the government’s prerogative but the right of Shehbaz and Hamza,” she added.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020