Second bail to Maryam in NAB cases to look after father

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President and daughter of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam, has been granted bail for the second time in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases.

This time, she has been bailed out by the Lahore High Court (LHC) after fifty-six days detention in the NAB custody or on judicial remand in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) inquiry.

Earlier, she had remained in jail for sixty-six days after her arrest on July 13 last year following her conviction along with her father in the London apartments’ case by an accountability court of Islamabad. A week after the judgement was handed, they had flown into Pakistan from London to court the arrest.

For the first time, she had been given bail by a two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah. The IHC had also suspended the verdict of the trial court.

The NAB prosecutor opposed her bail in the LHC citing the Supreme Court judgement, which provides that this facility is offered only in extraordinary circumstances and extreme hardship cases. He had also argued against the suspension of London apartments’ verdict and grant of bail to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam.

However, the NAB lawyer had not spoken against the grant of bail to Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds by the IHC. He had pleaded that bail may be granted for a limited time as was done by the Supreme Court while deciding a similar plea of the former prime minister for health reasons. The IHC had agreed with his assertion and given eight-week bail with the direction that if Nawaz Sharif’s health did not improve or worsens on the expiration ofthis period, he should approach the Punjab government for extended release as the provincial administration is empowered under the prison rules to do so.

Maryam was arrested on August 8 before the eyes of her father when she was meeting him in the Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore. She had been summoned by NAB in connection with the CSM inquiry and was going to appear before the investigators on the same day. She has been bailed out nine days after Nawaz Sharif was granted bail on Oct 26. A few days ago, Maryam was allowed to stay with her father in the Services Hospital to be with her in this difficult time of his highly critical health.

The LHC judgement said that Maryam had also filed an application for the interim bail so as to see her ailing father already hospitalised in which we have been informed by the State that she is accompanying him in the medical facility to look after his health, therefore, prayer to the extent of grant of interim bail has not been pressed by her counsel.

It further said that she also seeks bail on the ground that she is a woman and refers to the judgement given in case titled Miss Shahla Raza Vs The State and case titled Mst Afsar Bibi Vs. The State, in which it was held that grant of bail to a woman is also discretionary, but the courts have always been leaned towards such exercise, therefore, grant of bail to a woman should be a rule and discretion must be exercised in her favour in the absence of compelling circumstances disentitling her to the grant of bail.

According to the order, in the present case the exceptional circumstances do not appear to attract in favour of the prosecution, since she has neither absconded nor obstructed the process of law. A reference may also be given to case titled Zohra Khanum Vs The State in which the Supreme Court has held that showing the common intention/abetment by a woman even in a murder case required further probe, therefore, the bail was granted.

Besides, in the judgement titled Chairman, National Accountability Bureau, Islamabad through Prosecutor General Accountability, Islamabad Vs Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and 2 others, it was already observed that the petitioner being a woman was rightly granted to concession of bail.

It said one of the respondents [Nawaz Sharif] is already in jail after having been convicted and sentenced in connection with another criminal case, another of these respondents [Maryam] is a woman and the law envisages concession for her in the matter of bail and the sentence of imprisonment passed by the trial court against yet another of the respondents [Capt (R) Safdar] was quite short.”