Maryam Nawaz recalls prison anguish over mother’s death

In her more recent remarks, Maryam Nawaz placed the episode within a broader account of hardship her family faced during those years of imprisonment.

Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister of Punjab, revisited a painful chapter of her family’s past in a recent speech, describing how prison walls kept her and her father from her mother’s final moments.

Maryam Nawaz spoke about the ordeal her family endured in 2018, when her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, battled cancer in a London hospital while she and her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, sat inside a Pakistani jail. She told her audience that authorities mocked her mother’s illness at the time and even claimed the diagnosis amounted to nothing more than a political drama.

Kulsoom Nawaz had traveled abroad for cancer treatment before her husband and daughter received prison sentences in the Avenfield corruption case. Maryam Nawaz recalled that her mother’s condition worsened rapidly while she and Nawaz Sharif remained confined at Adiala Jail near Rawalpindi. She said days passed without any real communication with her mother, and neither she nor her father received permission to travel and sit at her bedside.

According to Maryam Nawaz, individuals close to the matter later entered her mother’s intensive care unit disguised as doctors to verify whether the illness was genuine. She said this act reflected the level of cruelty her family faced during that period. Kulsoom Nawaz died in a London hospital in September 2018 while her husband and daughter remained locked inside a Pakistani prison thousands of miles away.

Maryam Nawaz said prison officials informed Nawaz Sharif of his wife’s death, and he then carried the burden of telling his daughter, who was being held in the same jail complex. She described the moment as one that shocked her completely, since she had no chance to prepare for the loss or say goodbye. Nawaz Sharif reportedly told her afterward that a person sometimes has to die to prove their innocence in the country.

Authorities eventually granted Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and her husband, Safdar, a short parole to attend the funeral in Lahore. Officials escorted the three from Adiala Jail to Nur Khan Airbase before flying them to the city so they could take part in the burial. Maryam Nawaz has said publicly that missing her mother’s final moments remains one of the most painful experiences of her life.

In her more recent remarks, Maryam Nawaz placed the episode within a broader account of hardship her family faced during those years of imprisonment. She also referenced her father’s declining health while in custody, noting that he suffered multiple heart attacks and a drop in platelet count during his seventies while behind bars. She said political opponents at the time treated his medical struggles as a joke rather than a genuine concern.

Maryam Nawaz used the speech to contrast her family’s treatment with the conduct her own party later showed toward political rivals in custody. She stated that neither she nor other Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders ever sought to strip basic comforts from opponents held in jail, despite past criticism directed at her family during their own imprisonment.

The account offered by Maryam Nawaz highlights a recurring theme in Pakistani politics, where family members of senior leaders have faced detention together during periods of legal and political confrontation. Her description of missing her mother’s death while confined alongside her father illustrates the personal toll that political and legal battles can place on families, regardless of position or status.

Maryam Nawaz continues to reference this period publicly as part of her broader narrative about the years her family spent navigating legal cases, imprisonment and personal loss simultaneously.