PML-N announces funeral arrangements for Kulsoom Nawaz

Spokesperson for the PML-N Marriyum Aurangzeb on Wednesday evening announced that Begum Kulsoom Nawaz’s funeral prayers will be offered on Friday, September 14, at the Sharif Medical City in Jati Umra.

Party sources in Lahore had earlier confirmed to the media that Begum Kulsoom would be laid to rest at the Jati Umra residence of the Sharif family.

Congregational prayers (Rasm-e-Qul) for the benefit of the deceased will be offered on September 16 (Sunday) from Asr (late afternoon) to Maghrib (sunset), Aurangzeb announced.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired captain Mohammad Safdar had been released from Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on parole in the early hours of Wednesday, hours after Begum Kulsoom Nawaz’s demise in a London hospital.

They are currently at Jati Umra, awaiting the funeral. Three rooms inside the residence have been declared a sub-jail, DawnNewsTVreported.

Meanwhile, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has left for London to attend Begum Kulsoom’s funeral prayers at the Regent’s Park mosque. He will accompany Begum Kulsoom’s body back to Lahore.

Family sources told Dawn that Kulsoom’s sons would not accompany her body to Lahore, though her other daughter, Asma, and grandson, Zikriya Sharif, would go with the casket to Pakistan.

“A PIA flight carrying the body will arrive here on Friday morning and she is likely to be laid to rest the same day beside the grave of her father-in-law Mian Sharif at Jati Umra,” they said.

Kulsoom Nawaz.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in August last year, Begum Kulsoom was still undergoing treatment when she suffered cardiac arrest on June 15 and was rushed to a private hospital in London where she had remained admitted since then.

According to family sources, her health deteriorated on Sunday night and she was placed on life support. She couldn’t be revived, however, and breathed her last on Tuesday.

See: A life-long regret for Nawaz, Maryam Source