The Lahore High Court (LHC) is hearing a petition challenging the government's condition of furnishing indemnity bonds in order to secure the removal of ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem is hearing the case, which was filed by PML-N's legal team on behalf of the former prime minister.
During the hearing, the court asked Nawaz's lawyer if the former premier was willing to submit anything as surety. The bench allowed PML-N's legal team to discuss the matter with Nawaz and adjourned the hearing for 15 minutes.
Earlier, Additional Attorney General (AAG) Chaudhry Ishtiaq A. Khan, who is representing the government, said that the federal government is aware that the Nawaz's condition is "precarious". He added that the government decided to remove the former premier's name from the ECL but has asked him to submit indemnity bond.
"If Nawaz Sharif does not want to submit the bonds to the government, then he can submit them to court," Khan said.
PML-N's legal team, party president Shehbaz Sharif and leaders Pervez Rashid and Ahsan Iqbal arrived in the court ahead of the hearing. The legal team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as well as the government — both named as respondents in the case — also arrived in the court. NAB is being represented by Faisal Bukhari and Chaudhry Khaliqur Rehman.
The high court had yesterday declared the petition as maintainable after hearing the arguments of PML-N's legal team and the respondents.
The government had argued that the petition was not within the jurisdiction of the LHC. The argument was rejected by the bench, which relied upon superior courts’ judgements cited by PML-N's legal team and observed that the petition was maintainable before the LHC.
"The arguments advanced by the learned additional attorney general that the conditions mentioned in the impugned memorandum are based upon the judgement pronounced by the accountability court, Islamabad, and challenged before the Islamabad High Court, therefore, this court lacks jurisdiction, has not impressed us," said the bench in its three-page short verdict.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, after much deliberation, had granted a one-time permission to Nawaz for four weeks to travel abroad for his treatment provided he submitted indemnity bonds worth over Rs7.5 billion.
The condition was challenged in LHC by the PML-N legal team, on behalf of the former premier, on Thursday and was taken up by the two-member bench on the same day.
Nawaz, who was diagnosed with an immune system disorder, has been advised to go abroad for medical treatment. The name of the former premier — who is convicted in two corruption cases and is a suspect in another — was placed on the ECL.
The former prime minister was rushed from Kot Lakhpat jail to the hospital last month after his personal physician Dr Adnan Khan raised an alarm over his deteriorating health. Following this, Shehbaz Sharif had submitted a request to the interior ministry as well as NAB for the removal of Nawaz's name from the ECL so that the former prime minister could travel abroad for medical treatment.
Nawaz, who was incarcerated after an accountability court found him guilty in the Al Azizia corruption reference, was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court on humanitarian grounds. He also obtained bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, in which he is a suspect, from the LHC.
source https://www.dawn.com/news/1517068/hearing-of-pml-n-petition-against-indemnity-bond-underway-in-lhc
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