Shahbaz’s bail extended till Aug 17 LHC judge recuses himself from case hearing

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) two-member bench, hearing pre-arrest bail petition of Shahbaz Sharif into an assets beyond means case, stood dissolved on Thursday after one of the judges recused himself from the bench.

Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan had constituted a bench comprising Justice Chaudhry Shahram Sarwar and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh to hear the NAB related cases during the current week of summer vacations.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Sarwar declined to hear the case, citing his personal relations with Sharif’s leading counsel Azam Nazir Tarar. The bench extended Shahbaz Sharif bail till August 17 and referred the case to chief justice for its fixation before another bench.

Later, talking to the media, Shahbaz Sharif said the incumbent government was targeting PML-N as it was using NAB to subject party to political victimisation. He said the Supreme Court verdict in Khwaja brothers’ case had exposed its performance and cemented party's stance that the Bureau was being used for political engineering. It has become the talk of the town that NAB has become a controversial institution, he added.