LHC orders to return Maryam Nawaz’s passport

F.P. Report

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has ordered the deputy registrar (judicial) to return the passport of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif which was surrendered by her in 2019 to the court in order to get bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

The order was passed by a three-judge bench of the Lahore High Court headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and comprising Justice Ali Baqir Najfi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh on Monday. The bench was hearing Maryam’s plea seeking recovery of her passport.

During hearing, the NAB deputy prosecutor general told the court that no investigation was currently going on against Maryam so the bureau did not require her passport anymore.

The court asked the additional attorney general that a petition challenging Maryam’s bail had been filed and what was his take on it.

On this, the AAG replied that he had no knowledge of such a thing. He, however, said that if the court wanted to return the passport of PML-N leader, it’s up to it. 

In her miscellaneous petition, Maryam had stated that the bureau had confiscated her passport in the Ch Sugar Mills case. She stated that after a passage of four years, no reference even had been filed adding that confiscating passport of a citizen is violation of basic constitutional rights.

She said she had no intention of fleeing the country as she had returned to Pakistan leaving her mother at deathbed abroad. She said the NAB law does not stop anyone from travelling abroad.

She further stated that she had deposited Rs700 million as security and she got bail in the case on merit.

She requested the court to order the deputy registrar judicial to return her passport.