ISLAMABAD: Thousands attended the funeral of Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, near the Sharif family home at Jati Umra on the outskirts of Lahore on Friday evening.
Kulsoom’s body was taken to the venue for the funeral prayers at Sharif Medical City, near Jati Umra, in an ambulance that was followed by a vehicle driven by Sharif himself. He was accompanied by cleric Tariq Jamil, who led the prayers.
The massive crowd included top politicians, thousands of supporters of Sharif’s PML-N party and well-wishers. Security at the venue was tight, and barbed wire was used to separate high-profile dignitaries from ordinary citizens. Despite these measures, footage on television showed politicians being jostled by the crowd as they were led to their places.
A protective human chain was formed around Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and Tariq Jameel as the prayers were offered.
Kulsoom, 68, once referred to as the “only man” in the PML-N for her brave opposition to former dictator Pervez Musharraf after her husband was jailed and forced into exile in Saudi Arabia, died in London on September 11 after a long struggle with cancer. She was diagnosed with lymphoma in August last year.
Her casket reached the provincial capital of Lahore on Friday morning on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from London. The body was received by members of the Sharif family, including Shahbaz’s son Hamza Shahbaz, and later transported to Jati Umra.
Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and her husband Muhammad Safdar, who were given jail terms by an anti-corruption court earlier this year, were granted parole for five days to attend the funeral.