LHC bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi to hear Maryam Nawaz’s plea seeking return of passport on April 25
LAHORE, April 21 (SABAH): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s request to withdraw her passport for Umrah on Thursday has been heard by the Lahore High Court and it was forwarded to a two-member bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi to re-hear the case on April 25.
According to the details, earlier on Thursday a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court headed by Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi heard Maryam Nawaz’s petition.
Supreme Court Bar President Chaudhry Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon Advocate appeared before the court and said that Maryam Nawaz wants to go to Saudi Arabia on April 27 to perform Umrah, adding that her passport is in the custody of LHC on a court order, her passport should be returned.
Justice Shahbaz Rizvi, who presided over the bench, remarked that it will be appropriate that the same bench which granted bail to Maryam Nawaz should hear the petition.
Justice Shahbaz Rizvi, while taking action, forwarded the petition of Maryam Nawaz back to the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice Lahore High Court Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti sent Maryam Nawaz’s petition to Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Baqar Najafi will hear the case on April 25.
It is worth mentioning here that the PML-N leader had surrendered her passport to the high court and submitted surety bonds after a two-member bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi granted her post-arrest bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case in 2019.
In the petition filed by Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Maryam Nawaz requested the court to direct the Deputy Registrar (Judicial) to return her passport which she had surrendered complying with LHC’s order dated October 31, 2019.
In her plea, Maryam Nawaz implored that freedom of movement was a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan and the passport condition imposed through the order deprived her of the said right.
“There is settled law that mere registration of case or institution of criminal proceedings does not automatically imply that the accused should be disallowed to move outside Pakistan,” she said, adding that registration of a criminal case would not be a ground for depriving a citizen of the exercise of his constitutional right.
“The condition as to surrender of a passport is alien to statutory requirements to enlarge an accused on bail, had it been the intention of the legislature then it would have made the corresponding provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure 18989 or any other special enactments for the trial of offences.”
She stated that even otherwise NAO 1999 does not contain any provision restricting an accused’s right to travel abroad unlike other special laws, such as, the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 or Ordinance IX of 1984.
Shedding light on her case she implored that as per the report submitted by the prosecution at that time in the instant case, a suspicious transaction report (STR) was forwarded to the National Accountability Bureau chairman on January 12, 2018; consequently, an inquiry was initiated against her on November 14, 2018.
After that, the petitioner was arrested in the abovesaid inquiry on August 8, 2019, and she remained on physical remand with the investigation agency for a period of 48 days. Then the petitioner was granted a post-arrest bail on October 31, 2019. She contended that since the inquiry started against her, no reference has been filed before any court by the prosecution against her.