Zardari was also given parole on mother’s death

LAHORE: Former Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain Safdar are expected to be released temporarily shortly to attend the last rites of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, as was the case with country’s former President, Asif Ali Zardari, who was set free on parole in November 2002 during the reign of General Pervez Musharraf to be with his dying mother in Karachi.

Bilquees Begum, 72, had died in the private Ziauddin Hospital after a protracted illness on November 13, 2002.

She was in a coma for the last six days. The government had shifted Zardari from Islamabad a week earlier to allow him to be with his mother. The hospital rooms where Zardari was staying was declared a sub-jail.

Zardari was arrested on November 5, 1996, on charges of massive corruption and abuse of power minutes after the then president dismissed the government of his wife, a two-time Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto.

Since then Zardari had remained under detention, facing some 14 cases, including those pertaining to corruption, narcotics smuggling and murder. According to the “Gulf News,” Asif Zardari was at his dying mother’s bedside, reciting the Holy Quran. She was in a coma for a week.

The government had shifted Asif Zardari from Islamabad during the first week of November 2002 to allow him to be with his terminally-ill mother.

The hospital rooms where Zardari was staying was declared a sub-jail. Soon after the death of his mother, the government had allowed Zardari to take his mother's body for burial.