LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz on Saturday approached the Lahore High Court with a second petition for post-arrest bail in illegal assets/money laundering case on a fresh ground of being vulnerable to be hit by coronavirus pandemic in prison.

Previously, a two-judge bench had denied bail to him in the money laundering case on merit while granted in another case of Ramzan Sugar Mills during the last month.

Since Hamza is yet to move the Supreme Court on merit against the denial of bail, he approached the high court once again for the relief on the new ground of the growing risk of the pandemic.

The petition filed through Advocate Amjad Pervez refers to media reports about confirmed cases of Covid-19 in prisons. It pleads that the petitioner being in the jail is highly vulnerable to the pandemic.

The petition says the LHC chief justice also issued an administrative order for filing of bail petitions on behalf of the prisoners and their decisions on priority in view of the growing cases of coronavirus.

It asks the court to release the petitioner on bail.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2020