Daily Times

LAHORE: After being contacted by Maryam Nawaz Sharif, one of the most influential religious seminaries of the city, Jamia Naeemia, as well as political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan-Ijaz Hashmi group (JUP-I) announced their support to the ruling party’s candidate Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif in NA-120 by-election. Maryam Nawaz visited the house of JUP-I patron Pir Syed Ijaz Hashmi in Garden Town on Wednesday to gain his support for her mother as candidate in the by-election. After the successful meeting with the JUP-I head, she along with Ijaz Hashmi held a joint but brief talk to the media and said that she was not only representing her entire family but also running a campaign for her mother in her absence, as she was under treatment in London. To a question about the party’s leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmad Khan’s comment over not accepting her as a leader and considering her just a non-political child, Maryam Nawaz replied that she had a lot of respect for him. She said that the JUP-I had assured its support to the Nawaz League’s candidate in NA-120, on which Ijaz Hashmi while talking to the media confirmed it and said that his party would fully back Kulsoom Nawaz in the by-polls for the prosperity of the country. In the Model Town office of the party, a delegation of religious clerics of Jamia Naeemia (Garhi Shahu) also met Maryam Nawaz Sharif and announced their support to the Nawaz League in the by-polls. On the occasion, Maryam also telephoned Dr Raghib Hussain Neemi, head of Jamia Naeemia, and thanked him for his support.

Published in Daily Times, September 14^th 2017.