Pakistan election results ‘tainted, dubious’, says Nawaz Sharif from inside prison

In his first reaction over the general election results, Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has alleged that the polls had been “stolen” and warned that the “tainted and dubious” results would cast a “bad impact” on the country’s politics. Talking to visitors in Adiala Jail on Thursday, the incarcerated leader of the PML-N, expressed his reservations over the elections results in Faisalabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi, the Dawn reported. He said his party candidates in these areas were in very stable position but they had been declared defeated candidates.
Thursday was a meeting day for Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law retired Capt Muhammad Safdar, who were imprisoned after they were convicted by an accountability court over the family’s ownership of four luxury flats in London. A number of party leaders, who visited the jail, quoted Sharif as saying that the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had been “made victorious” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite its previous government’s bad performance in the province. Sharif said that Khan’s position was much weaker this time than in 2013 when last general elections were held. He said the polls had been stolen and the “tainted and dubious” results would cast a “bad impact” on the country’s politics, the daily reported.
PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Junaid Safdar (Maryam’s son), Mahnoor Safdar and Meharun Nisa (daughters of Maryam), former federal minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and PML-N media coordinator Muhammad Mehdi were among those who called on Sharif and his daughter. The personal physician of Sharif also visited him in the jail. The jail authorities, following the orders of the superintendent, brought Sharif, Maryam and Safdar from their cells to the conference hall where they met the visitors. Sharif and Shahbaz also held a one-on-one meeting lasting more than half an hour, later to be joined by Maryam, the daily said.
During the meeting, post-elections scenario of the country was discussed, it said. The PML-N leaders said that no facilities were provided to Sharif in the jail as they met him in a room with no air conditioner while an air conditioner was running in the waiting room for the visitors, it said. The health of the former prime minister was not good, they said, adding that Sharif did not make any comment about his health but his condition was obvious from his physical appearance. Meanwhile, a team of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), which was to examine Sharif on Thursday, had to wait for over one hour and finally returned to the hospital as Sharif was meeting his family members.
The team has been mandated to submit a report on whether Sharif should be shifted to hospital or not. A member of the team, requesting anonymity, said that during a visit on Wednesday, they had advised Sharif to get his ultrasound done but he postponed it to the next day. “On Thursday we reached Adiala jail and requested the administration to allow us to examine Sharif and conduct his medical tests,” he said. “However, we were told to wait as Sharif was meeting his family members. We waited for more than an hour and finally told the PIMS administration that we were not being allowed to examine him and returned after getting approval from the administration,” he said. A senior doctor of PIMS, Dr Zulfiqar Ghouri, said the team would again be sent to Adiala jail on Friday to examine Sharif.