LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif on Monday filed a civil miscellaneous application before the Lahore High Court seeking exemption from personal appearance in hearing of his pre-arrest bail in assets beyond means investigation by the NAB.

Mr Shahbaz also urged a division bench, which will resume hearing on the bail petition on Tuesday (today), to extend his bail.

On previous hearing, the bench had asked Shahbaz to get his fresh Covid-19 test conducted from Punjab Institute of Public Health Sciences.

In the fresh application filed through counsel Amjad Pervez, Mr Shahbaz said the court had directed the head of the institute to conduct his test. However, he said, unfortunately no one from the institute contacted him for the test but to establish his bonafide he got his test conducted from a private laboratory, which turned negative.

The PML-N president said although he recovered from the Covid-19, he was still undergoing fatigue as he was an old man. He said he had been living in self-isolation at home under the supervision of doctors of Ittefaq Hospital who advised him to undergo multiple tests of corona antibodies.

Mr Shahbaz pleaded that under such circumstances it will be highly risky for him to expose to public place. Therefore, he asked the court to allow him exemption from personal appearance and extend his pre-arrest bail for three weeks.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2020