PML-N workers barred from meeting Nawaz Sharif, clash with police

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers and supporters clashed with the police on Thursday as the authorities barred them and several senior party leaders from meeting incarcerated former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore’s prison.
PML-N leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal were stopped by police personnel from meeting Sharif when they reached Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
Dozens of PML-N workers and supporters had gathered outside the main gate of the jail. They even brought chairs and tents to set up a camp outside the prison, Dawn newspaper reported.
But police personnel prevented the workers from breaching the outer cordon of the jail and had their tables and chairs removed.
Jail authorities only allowed Sharif’s immediate family members, including PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, to meet the former Prime Minister.
The three-time Premier is serving a seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case — filed in the wake of the apex court’s July 28, 2017 order in the Panama Papers case.