LHC to hear plea seeking cancellation of Maryam Nawaz’s bail

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday will take up the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea seeking cancellation of post-arrest bail granted to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz  in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural will hear the case.

The LHC had released Maryam Nawaz on November 4, 2019 on bail with direction to surrender her passport to the Registrar’s office of the court to show her bonafide since the NAB had feared she could flee the country.

The NAB in its petition argues that Maryam has been flouting and misusing the concession of bail by continuously attacking the state institutions through political speeches and social media.

It stated that the respondent is involved in anti-state propaganda supporting the nefarious designs of the enemies of Pakistan.

“The respondent has chosen a path of attacking the state institutions and tried to cause friction in the rank and file of armed forces and is also inciting the general public against them by publicly attacking them and the heads of other institutions,” the petition said.

The NAB argued that the conduct of the respondent attracts specific grounds to seek cancellation of post-arrest bail.

“Despite being released on bail, Maryam Nawaz is not cooperating with NAB in the investigations,” read the petition filed by the anti-graft body.

NAB told the court that the PML-N leader was summoned to submit documents in relation to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case on 10 January of last year.

It said the PML-N leader did not give any response to the notice and neither did she submit the requested documents.

NAB then said that, after her failure to submit the documents, it had summoned Maryam to appear in person on August 11 of last year.

It alleged that, on that day, the PML-N leader used her political power and attacked the NAB offices. The bureau added that a separate case had been registered against the PML-N leader over the incident. It added that Maryam, by not appearing for the examination, was obstructing the investigation.