Nawaz Sharif denied helper in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, told to maintain room on his own

TIL Desk/World/Lahore/ Pakistan’s incarcerated former premier Nawaz Sharif will maintain his jail room on his own as the Punjab province government on Wednesday refused to provide him a prisoner who could serve as his orderly, according to a media report. Sharif has been serving a seven-year jail term in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills graft case and being a former prime minister he is entitled to better facilities including an orderly who is from prisoners.

Punjab’s Inspector General of Prisons Shahid Saleem Beg said on Wednesday that Punjab government decided that it could not provide a prisoner to Sharif who could serve as his orderly and that he would have to maintain his room on his own. The prisons chief said “Nawaz Sharif has been asked to maintain his room” to serve out the seven-year “rigorous” imprisonment handed down to him in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills/Hill Metal Establishment reference.

Speaking to media personnel in the presence of Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar at the Governor House, the prisons chief said Sharif’s case was highly sensitive and he could not be allowed to go outside his barracks in the prison.  He said Sharif’s “rigour had been kept within his barracks”. According to the jail manual, he said, the former premier had been asked to maintain his room himself.