Maryam warns of hunger strike if Sharif not allowed home-cooked food

PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz on Monday threatened to stage a hunger strike outside Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore if her father and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was denied provision of homecooked food in the prison.

"The fake government has imposed restrictions on homemade meals for Nawaz Sharif. The staff who took his food has been waiting outside the jail for the last five hours," she tweeted in Urdu while attacking the ruling PTI government.

Sharif is currently serving a seven-year prison term in connection with the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case.

Claiming that her father had refused to eat prison food, Maryam threatened to approach the court if the government did not stop the restriction in the next 24 hours.

"Mian Sahab has refused to eat prison food. If they (the government) do not take back this restriction in the next 24 hours, then I will contact the court," she said.

Maryam, who is also PML-N's vice president, asserted that she would then stage a hunger strike outside the prison if she did not receive any help from the court.

"If I don't get help from the court, then I will sit outside Kot Lakhpat jail. Even if I have to go on a hunger strike, I will do it," Maryam said in another tweet.

Terming the jail authorities as "oppressors", she alleged that they could mix anything in her father's food and warned them of not taking her threat lightly.

Echoing similar sentiments, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif slammed the jail authorities for imposing a restriction on home-cooked food for his brother, calling it "grave oppression".

Asserting that Nawaz Sharif is a heart patient, Shehbaz Sharif urged the government to ensure the provision of homemade food to his elder brother soon.

Amidst the controversy in the matter, jail authorities had imposed the restriction as per the directions of the home department and Nawaz Sharif will get food cooked in the prison, The Dawn reported quoting sources.

On Sunday, Maryam had demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and asserted that keeping her father behind the bars is a crime.

A purported video released by Maryam on July 6 showed Accountability Court judge Arshad Malik telling a PML-N worker that there was a lack of evidence against Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case. She alleged that the judge confessed that he had been "pressurised and blackmailed" to convict her father in the case.

The judge has refuted the allegations and termed the video as "fake" while the ruling PTI government has questioned the authenticity of the footage.