Maryam Nawaz gets her passport back following LHC orders

Maryam Nawaz gets her passport back following LHC orders issued on Monday.

Lahore High Court directed the deputy registrar (judicial)  to return Maryam Nawaz’s passport.

PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz surrendered her passport for getting bail in a corruption reference in 2019.

A three-member bench of the LHC headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and comprised of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh heard Maryam Nawaz’s plea to return her passport on Monday.

“It’s a simple case in front of you,” Maryam Nawaz’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz said, adding, “Maryam had requested for return of passport for performing Umrah. This request is completely different from this.”

“This is not a bail petition. Maryam got bail on merit. She submitted her passport on the court orders,” Pervaiz told the court.

He contended that the sugar mills reference was filed over the last four years, claiming that if the National Accountability Bureau had started it his client would have been declared “innocent”.

The government lawyer said that the record has not been received from NAB.

To this, the court remarked that would the counsel has to go somewhere for seeking a record.

The court further inquired whether the lawyer knew that it was a court hearing today or not.

NAB at the last hearing, had told the court that it no longer needed Maryam Nawaz’s passport, clearing the way for her passport to be returned.

On the other hand, the PML-N leader confirmed in a tweet that she has received her passport which she had surrendered on the court’s order.

“Scared of my rallies, ‘fitna’ kept me in Kot Lakhpat jail’s death cell for three months to investigate in a case which was not filed till today.”

“Alhamdulillah, my passport has been returned.”