NAB wants court to dismiss Maryam's bail petition.

Byline: Wajih Ahmad Sheikh

LAHORE -- The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday urged the Lahore High Court to dismiss bail petition of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz in Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case saying she could flee the country or go underground if granted the relief.

A NAB prosecutor submitted its para-wise comments to the bail petition taken up by a division bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem.

To a court's query, Ms Nawaz's counsel Azam Nazir Tarar confirmed that the petitioner had been allowed by the authorities to visit her ailing father former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at Services Hospital.

The bench adjourned hearing till Tuesday (today) after the counsel sought time to prepare his arguments after going through the bureau's reply.

Besides denying the arguments made by Ms Nawaz against inquiry into the CSM, the reply said mischief sought to be suppressed by National Accountability Ordinance 1999 was not just a crime against an individual but a crime against society so the response to the same had to be aggressive and punitive rather than benign and curative.

Bureau fears she may move abroad, admits excesses of its law in some cases

The NAB in the reply admitted the excesses of its law in some cases saying,'It may be true that an individual subjected to the rigours of this may sometimes suffer disproportionately but the greater good of the society emerging from stringent application of this law may make this approach worth its while.'

It said the petitioner had been trying to frustrate and hamper the investigation and there was a likelihood of her fleeing the country. 'There are chances that the accused will make herself scarce or going underground or become unavailable,' it said adding that co-accused Yousaf Abbas had also tried to escape abroad.

The bureau said the petitioner had been trying to mislead the court taking a misconceived plea that the CSM inquiry had already been a subject matter of three references...