Kulsoom Nawaz's body brought to Lahore from London; former PM Nawaz and daughter Maryam to attend funeral

Lahore: A Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying the body of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, from London arrived in Lahore early on Friday. The flight landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore around 6.45 am (local time). The body was later shifted to Jati Umra Lahore residence of the Sharif family for burial, Geo TV reported. Kulsoom died on Tuesday in a London hospital after a long battle with cancer. She was 68. She is to be buried on Friday. Shehbaz Sharif, the deceased’s brother-in-law and president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), along with Begum Kulsoom’s daughter Asma, grandson Zayd Hussain Sharif (Hussain Nawaz’s son), and 11 other family members accompanied the body. [caption id=“attachment_5182401” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Kulsoom Nawaz in December, 2000. Reuters[/caption] Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, Begum Kulsoom’s sons, did not return to the country for their mother’s funeral. Both have been declared absconders by an accountability court in the corruption cases. Kulsoom’s funeral prayers will be held at the Sharif Medical City in Jati Umra neighbourhood at 5 pm (local time). The former three-time premier, who was accompanied by Sharif family members to pay respects to Begum Kulsoom at Sharif Medical City after her body was brought to Lahore, is currently meeting guests in Jati Umra. Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (retired) M Safdar, currently serving jail terms in the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after being convicted by an accountability court in a corruption case in July, have been released on parole to attend Kulsoom’s funeral. Meanwhile, the Punjab home department has issued a notification announcing an extension in the parole already awarded to Sharif for additional five days — September 12 (4 pm) to September 17 (4 pm). On Thursday, hundreds of people attended the funeral prayers of Begum Kulsoom at London’s Regent Park mosque, which was separate from another one to take place in Lahore on Friday. They chanted slogans of ‘we salute to the mother of democracy’. The funeral prayers were attended by her sons Hassan and Hussain, brother-in-law Shehbaz Sharif, former ministers Chaudhry Nisar and Ishaq Dar among others.