Lahore, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities
on Wednesday temporarily released former Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and his daughter from prison to attend funeral services
for his wife, Kulsoom, who died of cancer the day before in
London.
Video footage from Geo TV showed Sharif walking through
Islamabad's airport amid tight security to be flown to the
eastern city of Lahore, near the family home.
The former premier and his daughter have been given parole
for 12 hours but the government of Punjab province is
considering an extension so they can attend the funeral on
Friday. The body is due to be flown back from London on
Thursday.
"Initially, we released them on parole for 12 hours but the
application they have given to the Punjab government is for five
days and we are considering it," provincial law minister
Muhammad Raja Basharat told Reuters.
Ousted as prime minister last year by the Supreme Court over
some undeclared income, Nawaz Sharif was in London with Kulsoom
this year when a separate anti-graft court handed him a 10-year
jail term in absentia over the ownership of luxury flats in
London in the 1990s.
Maryam Sharif, his daughter and presumed political heir, was
sentenced to seven years in prison on related charges.
Both Sharifs said they had broken no law and there was no
proof the residences were purchased with money from corruption.
The father and daughter left Kulsoom's bedside to return to
Pakistan to rally their followers ahead of a July 25 general
election. Both were arrested on arrival and have been imprisoned
since.
Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which had
been in power for five years, lost to the party of former
cricket star Imran Khan.
Khan on Tuesday extended condolences to the Sharif family.
Three-time-premier Sharif, who was removed from office in
each of his elected terms, has maintained that his most recent
ousting in July 2017 and subsequent conviction were part of a
plot against him by the military and the judiciary.
The army has repeatedly denied any interference in politics,
while the courts insist justice is carried out impartially.