LHC reserves verdict on Maryam Nawaz's bail plea

LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday reserved its verdict on a bail plea filed by PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem reserved the verdict after the petitioner and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) concluded their arguments. The judgment will be announced on Friday.

Maryam had filed the plea on September 30 after she was arrested by the anti-graft watchdog under the accusation of owning the assets beyond known means on August 8. Following the deteriorating health of her father Nawaz Sharif, she submitted a filed a miscellaneous petition on October 24 requesting the court to grant her immediate bail on the humanitarian grounds.

During the proceedings, NAB's counsel Jahanzaib Bharwana raised objection over the PML-N leader’s bail plea stating that her petition did not meet the criteria for bail on humanitarian grounds.

He went on to say that the suspect was allowed by the jail authorities to meet her father, who is being treated for various diseases in Lahore’s Service Hospital for over a week.

The NAB counsel told the bench, "The chances are that the accused may flee abroad or go underground if freed on bail".

Bharwana informed the bench that the suspect played a key role in money laundering through the CSM, adding that a hefty amount of money was transferred from the sugar mills’s accounts to Maryam.

He told the court that the petitioner had not given satisfactory answers to NAB's inquiries regarding holding shares in CSM.

Accusing of holding assets beyond means, he said that Maryam had not filed any tax returns for many read.

Advocate Amjad Pervez, the counsel of Maryam Nawaz, argued that money laundering case against his client was baseless and that she was made Chief Executive of the CSM only in papers. NAB had breached law and arrested Maryam in money laundering case despite revealing all the assets in Panama Leaks case, he argued.