PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz again moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking the return of her passport which she had surrendered after receiving a post-arrest bail in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) case.
According to the details, Maryam Nawaz filed a petition in the LHC seeking the return of her passport. In the petition, the PML-N vice president noted that her passport was in judicial custody for the past four years.
The PML-N leader maintained that “the retention of the passport for an indefinite period tantamount to be violative of her fundamental rights of treatment in accordance with the law, life, liberty, right of movement and equal protection of the law”.
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After four years in judicial custody, the passport should be returned, no reference has been filed or a case, is this not a serious violation of human rights?
Maryam Nawaz filed a petition in the High Court— Kiran Irshad (ببر شیرنی)💎 (@KiranPMLN) September 7, 2022
In the petition, Maryam Nawaz further pointed out that the NAB law has not imposed any kind of restriction on an accused from traveling abroad. She said she had also deposited Rs70 million in security. She claimed that she was granted bail in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills case on merit.
Chaudhary Sugar Mills case
To clarify, in 2018, NAB began an inquiry into PML-N leaders after a Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) report described suspicious transactions in billions of rupees regarding the Chaudhary Sugar Mills under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The report found that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and family, and Abbas Sharif and family are shareholders in the company, along with some foreigners from the UAE and the UK.
Read more: Maryam Nawaz gets bail to attend to Nawaz, at the cost of her passport
During the probe, it was found that huge investments were made in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills from 2001 to 2017 amounting to billions of rupees in the name of issuing shares in foreigners’ names. Interestingly, later on, the same shares were transferred back to Maryam, Hussain, and Nawaz without paying any money to the foreign business partners.
Issue of Maryam Nawaz’s passport
Back in April, Maryam Nawaz filed a plea in the LHC for the return of her passport so that she could travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, and then to London.
Maryam Nawaz’s passport-return case had caused an issue as no less than four benches were formed to hear the petition due to judges recusing themselves one after the other.
The first bench comprised Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Anwarul Haq Pannun. A second bench was formed comprising Justice Najafi and Justice Farooq Haider. Finally, LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti then constituted a bench comprising Justice Najafi and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural to hear the petition.
Later, Maryam Nawaz withdrew her petition.
Read more: Maryam Nawaz takes back plea for return of passport