ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and hisdaughter Maryam are not likely to be transferred to a rest house from theAdiala Jail as it lacks proper security arrangements needed for thehigh-profile prisoners, a media report said.

A major indication that the Sharifs might not be shifted to the rest houseis that the authorities are considering shifting some very dangerousprisoners to somewhere else in the province to ensure proper security forthe former prime minister and his daughter.

The accountability court, which had convicted Sharif and Maryam, hadordered to send them to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after they were takeninto custody at the Lahore airport on July 13.

But the Islamabad chief commissioner also ordered shifting the father, thedaughter and her husband, who was already in the Adiala Jail, to the SihalaRest House situated inside the Sihala Police Training College.

The authorities concerned had been weighing the possibilities of followingthis order which the chief commissioner could issue under the law. But,they said, the rest house was not safe for the Sharif family which neededsecurity much more than any home-like facilities there, the daily said.

The rest house has six rooms, all having air conditioners, proper beds andwash rooms, but a boundary wall.

This is the same rest house where former president and PPP co-chairpersonAsif Ali Zardari was detained when his party’s government was dismissed in1996. Other political leaders have also been detained in the rest house inthe past.

Earlier, it was attempted to shift Maryam to Sihala Rest House but shefirmly refused as she did when asked to apply for the ‘Better Class’facility in the jail.

She is staying in a cell situated in the recently built Vocational TrainingCentre for prisoner women. Her cell is better than that of her father’s andhusband’s but except for security and personal dress, she is staying likean ordinary prisoner.

Sharif is allowed personal dress, shoes, toiletries and beddings.

A Better Class cook is preparing meals for Sharif, as are required by him,the daily said.

The payment for all this is made from the prisoner’s account in which hehas deposited the required money.

Sharif, 68, and his daughter Maryam, 44, were arrested in Lahore on July 13on their arrival from London after the accountability court found themguilty over his family’s ownership of four luxury flats in London.

Both Sharif and Maryam have been sentenced by the accountability court to10 and 7 years in prison respectively for corruption charges linked to thePanama Papers scandal.

Maryam’s husband was sentenced to one year.