LHC adjourns Maryam's bail plea as NAB fails to file reply.

Byline: Shahzad Ahmad

LAHORE -- A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday adjourned until October 30 hearing of a post-arrest bail petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz in Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) and money laundering cases.

The bench hearing the petition consisted of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem who heard the post-arrest petition.

A prosecutor representing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeared before the division bench and sought time for filing the parawise reply to the petition. On NAB's request seeking more time, the petitioner's counsel complained that accountability court was using delaying tactics aimed at prolonging the proceedings. Afterwards, the bench adjourned the hearing until Oct 30 and directed the bureau to file parawise comments by the next date of hearing in post-arrest petition. In her petition, the PML-N leader submitted that she was arrested in connection with Chaudhry Sugar Mills/money laundering case, though already her family assets, including CSM had been investigated by a joint investigation team in Panama leaks case, and the Supreme Court had not advised the bureau to file a reference regarding the CSM or assets owned by her.

The PML-N's incarcerated leader argued in the petition that the NAB could not probe the issue until the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan asks it to do so. She submitted that the bureau misused the National Accountability Ordinance to arrest her. She also denied all allegations leveled by the NAB as baseless.

In the petition, Maryam took the plea that she was being subjected to political victimisation and claimed that the bureau had not found even single evidence against her. She was detained by a NAB team when she went to Kot Lakhpat Jail in the provincial capital to meet her father Nawaz Sharif, the three-time prime minister of Pakistan.

She submitted that her post-arrest bail petition may kindly be accepted. An accountability court sent Maryam and her cousin Yousaf Abbas to jail on judicial remand on September 25. They remained on physical remand in the NAB's custody for 48 days their arrest on August 8.

During the sugar mills case hearing, the accountability court had rejected the NAB's request to extend Maryam's physical remand and sent her to jail on judicial remand till October 9.

The NAB accused her of being main shareholder of the sugar mills and committing money...