LAHORE: An accountability court on Wednesday extended judicial remand of Maryam Nawaz and her cousin Yousaf Abbas for two more days in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case as a prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sought more time to file reference against the suspects.

The judge sought their appearance again on Oct 25. Appearance of Mr Sharif is also fixed for the same date on expiry of his physical remand in the same case.

PML-N leaders including Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Zubair, Maryam Aurangzeb, Sara Afzal Tarar, Hina Pervez Butt, Bilal Yasin, Khurram Dastagir, Musaddiq Malik and Nehal Hashmi also attended the proceedings to express solidarity with Ms Nawaz. Outside the court, a heavy police contingent was deployed while roads leading to the judicial complex were closed by placing containers. The police restricted entry of party workers, lawyers and media persons to the courtroom.

Bail petition: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday allowed time to the NAB to file its reply to bail petition of Maryam Nawaz in the CSM case.

At the outset of the hearing the bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi asked NAB prosecutor Faisal Bokhari as if he filed comments on the petition as sought on first hearing held on Oct 1.

However, the prosecutor said some more time was required to file the para wise comments.

Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, the counsel of Ms Nawaz, said the NAB was trying to delay the proceedings with no reason. He pointed out that the bureau had sufficient time to prepare its reply as previous hearing fixed for Oct 14 was not held due to unavailability of the bench.

The bench initially adjourned hearing for second week of November, however, made it short to Oct 30 on the request of Mr Tarar who said the matter pertained to liberty of a woman being subjected to political victimization.

The NAB accused Ms Nawaz of committing money laundering through investments of huge amounts being main shareholder of the CSM. It said she was involved in money laundering with the help of some foreigners during the period of 1992-93 when her father Nawaz Sharif was prime minister.

However, her counsel in the bail petition complained about being subjected to double jeopardy saying a JIT made in Panama Papers had already investigated the same matter and decided to not file any reference.

The petition also questioned jurisdiction of the NAB’s chairman for approving the impugned inquiry under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2019