LAHORE: Jailed former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has urged his followers to pray for his critically ill wife Kulsoom, who is on a ventilator after suffering a cardiac arrest in London where she is undergoing treatment for throat cancer, a media report said today.
In an emotional appeal to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supporters, 68-year-old Sharif said he has left his ailing wife behind in a critical condition.
"I request everyone to please pray for the health of my wife during the time I am in jail," Sharif was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune newspaper.
Sharif, in a pre-recorded audio message to his party cadres, said that the main motive behind his incarceration was to keep him away from his followers ahead of the July 25 elections.
Describing his daughter Maryam as "Daughter of the nation", Sharif said that she has also been imprisoned but the "people conspiring against us don't know that no prison walls can relinquish our relation with our voters".
"Neither has any dictator succeeded in breaking this bond nor will any transgressor will succeed in their nefarious plans to crush this long-enduring relationship," he said.
Sharif, who is the supremo of the PML (N), urged his followers to ensure a massive triumph for the party in the polls.
Pakistan Supreme Court had disqualified Sharif in the Panama Paper case, forcing him to resign as the prime minister last year.
The Islamabad Accountability Court recently sentenced Sharif to 10 years in prison and imposed a fine of 8 million pounds (USD 10 million) in a corruption case.
His daughter Maryam was sentenced to seven years in prison along with a 2 million pound (USD 2.6 million) fine.
In addition, Sharif's son-in-law Captain (retired) M Safdar was given a one-year sentence without any fine.