LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s passport be returned.
The orders were issued by a three-judge bench led by LHC Chief Justice Justice Ameer Bhatti and comprised of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.
The bench was hearing the PML-N vice president’s request for the return of her passport, which she had surrendered to the LHC’s Deputy Registrar (Judicial) after being granted post-arrest bail in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) case.
As the proceedings began, CJ Bhatti inquired whether Maryam Nawaz had filed any application for the return of her passport. Amjad Pervez, Maryam’s counsel, argued that the previous plea had become infructuous in light of the current application.
The chief justice inquired whether an order had been issued on the application. Pervez argued that while an application for the return of the passport on the grounds of offering Umrah had been withdrawn, an application for permission to travel abroad to care for her father, who had been’sick’ earlier, was still pending.
However, the bench granted Maryam’s counsel’s request to continue arguments on the new application on the condition that he withdraw the previously pending application.
Pervez stated that Maryam was in NAB custody, but the accountability body was unable to establish guilt or complete the investigation in the four-year-old reference.
Maryam’s lawyer pleaded that his client had also deposited Rs70 million and surrendered her passport, but no reference had been filed, and that she was also not allowed to move freely.
