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Nawaz Sharif will not be travelling to Pakistan for mother’s funeral, PML-N says

Pakistani former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, right, leaves the Kot Lakpat jail after his release in Lahore on March 27, 2019. (AFP/File)
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Updated 22 November 2020
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Nawaz Sharif will not be travelling to Pakistan for mother’s funeral, PML-N says

  • Says Nawaz medically unfit to travel and is in hospital
  • Bail applications for Shehbaz and Hamza Sharif will be presented in court so they can attend funeral prayers
Updated 22 November 2020
RAJA RIAZ

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will not be travelling to Pakistan from London to attend the funeral of his mother, Begum Shamim Akhtar, his party’s Information Secretary told Arab News on Sunday.
The deceased nonagenarian, known widely as ‘Shamim Bibi,’ travelled to London to live with her eldest son, Sharif, in February this year. She had been advised by doctors not to travel due to her age.
Sharif, 70, a three-time former prime minister of Pakistan, was handed a seven-year prison sentence after a conviction for corruption in 2018. He was granted bail on medical grounds to seek treatment abroad last year.
“Mian Nawaz Sharif will not come to Pakistan because he is suffering from kidney problem and is in hospital,” Azma Zahid Bukhari told Arab News. 
“Doctors say he is not fit to travel,” she added.
“Her namaz-e-janaza [funeral prayers] will be offered in London and Mian Nawaz Sharif and other party members will attend. The body will then be sent to Lahore and namaz-e-janaza will be offered at Jati Umra,” Bukhari continued.
“She will be buried at Jati Umra graveyard where other family members are buried.”
Bukhari also said PML-N would be contacting the court for the release of Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Sharif on bail so they are able to attend Shamim Bibi's funeral prayers in Lahore.
Since October, Shehbaz who is leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, has been in jail on judicial remand.
Earlier, upon receiving news of the death, a tearful Maryam Nawaz left the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally in Peshawar after asking the huge crowds gathered there to pray for her grandmother’s soul.
Condolences poured in from the country’s political and military top brass.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted, “My condolences and prayers go to the Sharif family on the passing of Mian Nawaz and Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s mother.”

Earlier, Pakistan’s army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, who Nawaz Sharif has accused in public rallies via video link of being his ouster, sent his condolences via the official Twitter page of the military spokesperson.
“COAS expresses grief and heartfelt condolences on sad demise of Begum Shamim Akhtar mother of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif/ Mian Shehbaz Sharif “May Allah Almighty bless the departed soul in eternal peace - Ameen,” the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations wing of the military tweeted late Sunday afternoon.

Topics: Pakistan Nawaz Sharif Shahbaz Sharif Shamim Akhtar

Pakistan compensates families of victims in Islamabad mosque suicide attack claimed by Daesh

Updated 4 sec ago
AFP
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Pakistan compensates families of victims in Islamabad mosque suicide attack claimed by Daesh

  • Pakistan is paying compensation totalling more than $700,000 to the families of 40 people killed
  • Attack was deadliest in capital since 2008 truck bombing that killed 60 people at Marriott Hotel
Updated 4 sec ago
AFP

Pakistan is paying compensation totalling more than $700,000 to the families of 40 people killed in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad this month, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday.

The February 6 attack claimed by the Daesh group on the outskirts of the capital was the deadliest in Islamabad since a 2008 truck bombing that killed 60 people at the Marriott Hotel.

“Relief cheques have been delivered to the heirs of 36 martyrs belonging to Islamabad,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said in a statement, adding each victim’s family received five million rupees (around $17,800).

Cheques will also be delivered to four families of victims living outside Islamabad, the statement said.

Although officials have not released a final death toll, the statement marked the first official acknowledgement that 40 people were killed in the blast.

The suicide attack occurred during Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers.

Pakistan is a Sunni-majority nation, but Shiites make up between 10 and 15 percent of the population and have been targeted in attacks throughout the region in the past.

The last major attack in Islamabad took place in November when a suicide blast outside a court killed 12 people and wounded dozens, the first such incident to hit the capital in nearly three years.

The bombings come as Pakistan’s security forces battle intensifying insurgencies in southern and northern provinces that border Afghanistan.

Last year, militant assaults killed 1,235 people — including 825 security personnel and 400 civilians — with 27 suicide attacks reported nationwide and 2,597 militants killed.

Topics: Islamabad Mosque attack

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