Daily Times

The Punjab interim government on Wednesday rejected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claims regarding deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif being kept in abysmal conditions at the Adiala Jail.

Caretaker Information Minister Ahmed Waqas Riaz told a press conference that the former prime minister is being provided all the facilities that he is entitled to at the prison. “He was shifted to the jail on July 13 and was assigned ‘Better Class’ category of the prison the next day, July 14,” the minister said, in apparent response to a letter written to the government by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif two days ago seeking better facilities for Nawaz.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prisons Malik Mubashir maintained that Nawaz was provided ‘Better Class’ facilities by the Punjab government on July 14 after the former prime minister submitted an application to this effect.

Being a ‘Better Class’ prisoner, Nawaz has been provided with the following facilities: the option to obtain his personal clothes, bed, mattress, shoes, table, chair, a 21-inch television, radio, toiletries, newspapers and other similar items at his own expense. He has been jailed in a separate cell in a ‘Better Class’ portion of the jail. In his room, he has been issued a steel bed, table, chair, newspapers, sheets for his personal bed, personal clothes, one ceiling fan, two bracket fans and toiletries. He has also been allowed to keep a 21-inch TV. He has been provided adequate space to take a walk and he ‘regularly goes for a stroll in the lawn attached to his cell’. The jail’s medical staff and Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) consultants regularly conduct his medical check-up and his health is ‘satisfactory’. A specialised cook has been providing the diet recommended for him by an RIC nutritionist. The recommended diet that he is provided includes fruits, salad, dates and minced meat. His family members and friends can meet him on Thursdays, if he so desires, while his lawyers can meet him on any one day of the week.

According to the DIG prisons, Nawaz’s family members, lawyers and family doctor met him on July 14, while he has also met his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt(r) Safdar within the jail.

Published in Daily Times, July 19^th 2018.