The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday constituted a new two-member bench to hear Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s petition seeking her removal from the exit control list (ECL) and one-time permission to go abroad, a private TV channel reported.
The new bench constituted by the LHC will be presided over by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi. Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh will be the other member of the bench. The bench will hear Maryam’s petition on February 10 (tomorrow).
Previously, a two-member bench headed by Justice Tariq Abbasi had been hearing the petition. The PML-N vice president wishes to visit her ailing father, party supremo Nawaz Sharif, in London.
On December 21, 2019, Maryam had filed a petition in the LHC in a bid to have her name removed from the no-fly list. The petition was the PML-N leader’s second attempt to have her name struck off the travel restrictions list.
Maryam was arrested by NAB on August 8, 2019, in a case regarding suspect business transactions at the Chaudhry Sugar Mills where she is a major shareholder. On November 4, she was granted bail by the LHC which ordered her to furnish two surety bonds worth Rs 20 million, and deposit an additional Rs 70 million and surrender her passport to secure her release.
In her petition, Maryam said that her father’s health was critical and she was under unexplainable stress because of her inability to be with him at a time when he needs extra care. She said her father is dependent on her. She also mentioned the death of her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, who passed away in London last year, while she accompanied her father who returned to Pakistan to serve a sentence, awarded by an accountability court in a NAB reference.