Maryam moves LHC for removal of name from ECL

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday fixed for hearing PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s petition seeking removal of her name from the Exit Control List (ECL) to travel abroad for six weeks to look after her ailing father.

Khawaja Amjad Parvez filed the plea in the LHC on behalf of Maryam. The PML-N leader has made the federal government, the chairman of the NAB and others respondents in the petition.

Maryam has also challenged the legality of her name being placed on the ECL without her version being taken. She said in her petition ever since her mother’s death in July her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, had been unwell. She said she had been his primary caregiver. “He is currently in London where he is receiving medical treatment.” She asked the court to remove her name from the ECL till the final verdict in her case is announced. A two-member bench of the LHC headed by Justice Ali Baqir Najfi will hear the petition tomorrow (Monday).

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his sentence in the Al-Azizia corruption reference on December 18.

According to the cause list issued by the court’s registrar, the case will be heard by a two-member bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani. Separately, the court will hear National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea seeking an extension in the PML-N supremo’s sentence. The NAB in its 12-page repose submitted to the IHC had taken the stance that the former prime minister’s health was in no imminent danger.

The bureau had stated the medical reports did not suggest a surgery anytime soon and the court had sentenced Sharif keeping in view his medical history.

On December 24, 2018, an accountability court had sentenced Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference. In a short verdict, the court had said there was concrete evidence against the former premier in the Al-Azizia reference and that he was unable to provide a money trail in the case. The court ordered the PML-N supremo be “sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term of seven years along with a fine of Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million”.