Court orders jail superintendent to provide all facilities to Shehbaz

An accountability court in Lahore on Wednesday ordered the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent to provide all the facilities to PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif who was earlier sent to the prison on judicial remand in the money laundering reference, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The directives were issued as Jawad-ul-Hassan – the accountability court judge – heard an application filed on the subject and ordered the jail superintendent to present a report on Oct 27.

Provision of home-cooked food, chair and medical facilities are among the services that will now be available to the jailed leader of the opposition.

It was argued in the application that the PML-N was being targeted for political reasons in the prison and being deprived of basic rights on the federal government’s orders.

Attaullah Tarar, Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan and other PML-N leaders had earlier blasted the government for torturing Shehbaz while using different tactics.

On Tuesday, the accountability court had refused to extend the physical remand for Shehbaz and sent him to prison for a 14-day period, as it rejected the NAB plea to grant more time for interrogating him in the money laundering reference.

The court opted for judicial remand as the defence argued that the investigators had nothing new to say or probe as everything had been provided to the anti-graft body.

Shehbaz informed the court that he had spent 22 days in the NAB torture cell and the officials interviewed him for only 15 minutes since the last hearing despite his repeated assertions that he should be asked something new.

He said they had already submitted the required documents and the NAB was repeating the same old questions.

Commenting on the situation, PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday, in a series of tweets, described the treatment given to Shehbaz on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s orders as a manifestation of cheap mentality.

عمران صاحب کے حکم پر جیل میں شہبازشریف سے نارروا رویہ کو گھٹیا اور چھوٹی ذہنیت کا ثبوت قرار دے دیا.پی ڈی ایم کے گجرانوالا اور کراچی کے جلسے میں کامیابی کا اثر کوٹ لکھپت جیل میں عمران صاحب کے شہباز شریف کے ساتھ رویہ سے عیاں ہے

— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) October 21, 2020

She mentioned that chair wasn’t being provided to the PML-N president despite knowing he required that due to the chronic backache for offering daily prayers. 

“Imran Khan is fuming with anger because not a single penny corruption could be proved against Shehbaz Sharif during the past two-and-half years.”