Maryam warns of going on a hunger strike if Sharif not allowed homemade food in jail

Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of incarcerated former premier Nawaz Sharif, on Monday warned that she would go on a hunger strike if the government does not allow her ailing father homemade meals.

Sharif, 69, is currently serving seven-year imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case in Kot Lakhpat jail.

"The fake government has imposed restrictions on homemade meals for Nawaz Sharif. The staff who took his food has been waiting outside the jail for the last five hours," she tweeted.

"Mian sahab has refused to eat prison food. If they [the government] do not take back this restriction in the next 24 hours, then I will contact the court," the Vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said.

 

"If I don't get help from the court, then I will sit outside Kot Lakhpat jail. Even if I have to go on a hunger strike, I will do it," the 45-year-old leader warned in another tweet.

"I don't trust these oppressors; they can mix anything in Mian sahab's food," she said, adding her warning should not be considered a mere threat and that she would go through with it.

Her tweets came a day after Maryam demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying her father has been wrongly punished.

"The only crime he [Nawaz] has committed is that he did not commit a crime," she said while addressing a public rally in Mandi Bahauddin city in Punjab province on Sunday.

"Selected Prime Minister Imran Khan should resign and quit his office," Maryam demanded, insisting that the cricketer-turned-politician was "selected" and not elected.

Last week, Punjab chief minister's spokesperson Shahbaz Gill had said: "No meal restrictions have been placed on Nawaz Sharif as reported by a section of the media. Even today [July 2], his meal came from his home."

The Punjab government only suggested forming a doctors' panel to advise diet chart and provide him a cook for the same, he was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.

"Dr Adnan, the personal doctor of Nawaz Sharif, meets him regularly but every time misleads everyone on his health issues only to keep his job. This is unfortunate. He is not a cardiologist but the Sharif family keeps insisting on his cardiac expertise, only for propaganda purposes," he added.