Maryam Nawaz leaves PDM rally in Peshawar after grandmother’s death

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz on Sunday left Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Peshawar rally abruptly after the news of the demise of her grandmother Begum Shamim Akhtar in London, ARY News reported.

“I came to meet you but I just found out my grandmother passed away in London,” she said in a short address and asked people to pray for the departed soul and the health of her father.

The mother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Opposition Leader in National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif passed away in London on Sunday afternoon.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Attaullah Tarar announced the tragic news on Twitter and wrote that “Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s mother has passed away.”

Tarar said Suleman Shehbaz informed about the demise of Shamim Akhtar from London via phone and added that steps are being taken to shift her body to Pakistan.

Begum Shamim was staying in London with her son Nawaz Sharif, where she breathed her last. She was 90.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) kicked off its fourth power show on Sunday in Peshawar, despite the government’s ban on rallies due to increasing cases of coronavirus.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that opposition is callously destroying people’s lives and livelihoods in their desperation to get an NRO.

PM Imran Khan, in a series of tweets, said that Pakistan’s second COVID 19 spike data is of concern as increase in the virus patients on ventilators in last 15 days rose in Peshawar and Multan by 200%, Karachi 148%, Lahore 114% and Islamabad 65% while Multan Islamabad’s Covid ventilators capacity utilization has reached 70 percent.