Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s wife Kulsoom Nawaz passed away Tuesday (Sep 11) in London, Pakistan media reported.
Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law (retd) Muhammad Safdar who are at present imprisoned in Rawalpindi jail will be granted parole to attend the funeral prayers of Kulsoom Nawaz, a news agency reported quoting Pakistan media.
According to the news agency, Sharif family has made a decision to bring back Kulsoom’s body to Pakistan. “She will be laid to rest in Pakistan,” the family confirmed, as reported by the news agency.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif and her son, Hussain Nawaz, confirmed that the former first lady breathed her last at a clinic in London.
Earlier in the day, Kulsoom was placed on life support as her health began to deteriorate after developing a lung problem.
Among several dignitaries, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan condoled the demise of Kulsoom Nawaz.
The 68-year-old had been diagnosed with early-stage lymphoma in August last year and had been in London since. She further underwent multiple surgeries and around five chemotherapy sessions.
The former first lady of Pakistan had suffered a cardiac arrest and placed on a ventilator in June this year. A slight improvement in her condition was reported by her family members in June, a day before her husband and daughter were set to return to Pakistan to serve their sentences in the Avenfield corruption.
Having served as a first lady of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, 1990-1993, 1997-1999 and 2013-2017, Kulsoom was elected to Lahore’s NA-120 constituency in a by-poll post-Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification from elections last year.
However, she left for the United Kingdom shortly before the election campaign could begin.
Due to her illness, Kulsoom could not return to Pakistan and formally take an oath for the seat. Instead, her daughter Maryam Nawaz took her place and ran the campaign in her mother’s absence.
Born in 1950, in Lahore, Kulsoom was married to the former PM in 1971.
Kulsoom served as the president of the PML-N from 1999 to 2002 after Nawaz Sharif’s government was dismissed by former president Pervez Musharraf. Kulsoom along with her daughter was placed under house arrest after Nawaz’s dismissal.
The former first lady of Pakistan is survived by her husband Nawaz Sharif and four children, Hassan, Hussain, Maryam and Asma.
