https://arab.news/wmm3w
- Mother of Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif, Begum Akhtar’s last rites will be performed in Lahore on Saturday
- Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif prayed for Begum Akhtar in London before her body was flown back to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza, were released on a five-day parole to attend Begum Shamim Akhtar’s funeral that will be held in Lahore on Saturday.
Begum Akhtar, who passed away in London last Sunday, was the mother of Pakistan’s former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who is currently in Britain after he got a medical bail and flew out of the country in November 2019.
The Sharif family faced corruption allegations soon after the Panama Papers were leaked in April 2016.
The country’s top court disqualified the former premier from holding public office in July 2017, and he was convicted by an accountability court the next year.
While Nawaz Sharif currently resides abroad, his brother, Shehbaz, and nephew, Hamza, have been in prison and facing corruption references against them.
The provincial administration of Punjab released them on Friday to attend Begum Akhtar’s last rites as her body was flown back to Pakistan from London.
The PML-N founding leader, Nawaz Sharif, will not return to Pakistan for the funeral, though he prayed for his mother’s departed soul in a small congregation in London.
Sharif also missed his father’s funeral in 2004 since he was denied permission to return to his country from exile in Saudi Arabia by the administration of General (r) Pervez Musharraf.