LHC takes up Maryam’s plea for going abroad today

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court’s newly-constituted division bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi will resume hearing today (Monday) on a petition by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz seeking return of her passport and one-time permission to go abroad.

The PML-N vice president wishes to visit her ailing father, party supremo Nawaz Sharif, in London. Previously, a two-member bench headed by Justice Tariq Abbasi was hearing the petition. However, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh Saturday formed a new bench, which will be presided by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi while Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh will be the second member of the bench. Justice Ali Baqar Najafi had earlier been a part of the bench which was hearing Maryam’s petition requesting to remove her name from the ECL, but the bench was dissolved. No substantial development occurred in the proceedings when the new bench, headed by Justice Tariq Abbasi, was formed. Maryam was arrested by the NAB on August 8, 2019, in a case regarding suspected business transactions in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills, in which she is a major shareholder. On November 4, she was granted bail by the LHC which ordered her to furnish two surety bonds worth Rs20 million, and deposit an additional Rs70million and surrender her passport to secure her release.

In her petition, Maryam said her father’s condition was critical and she was under unexplainable stress because of her inability to be with him at a time when he needs extra care. She said her father is dependent on her. She also mentioned the death of her mother Kulsoom Nawaz, who passed away in London last year, while she accompanied her father who returned to Pakistan to serve a sentence, awarded by an accountability court in a NAB reference.