Maryam says will not make request to govt to travel for son's wedding in UK
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The nikkah ceremony of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz's son will take place in London later this month, but Maryam on Wednesday said she "will not make any request" to the government to seek permission to travel abroad on the occasion.
According to the wedding invite shared on Twitter by the PML-N leader, the nikkah of Junaid Safdar with Ayesha Saif Khan, daughter of Mr and Mrs Saifur Rahman Khan, will be held on August 22.
Saifur Rahman Khan, a close confidante of Nawaz Sharif, was made chairman of the then Ehtesab Bureau during Sharif's second tenure as the prime minister in 1997.
"Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the ceremony owing to blatant victimisation, bogus cases and my name on ECL (Exit Control List)," Maryam wrote.
In a second tweet, she recalled that she was in jail when her mother Kalsoom Nawaz passed away due to cancer.
"And now I won’t be able to share my son’s happiness, but, I will NOT make any request to this government for travel abroad," she said. "I leave the matter to Almighty Allah."
Maryam's name was placed on the ECL after her conviction in the Avenfield properties reference filed against her and her father, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, by the National Accountability Bureau. The government had allowed Nawaz to travel abroad on medical grounds in November 2019 but Maryam could not accompany him as her name was on the no-fly list.
Also in November 2019, the Lahore High Court had granted Maryam bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, in which she is a suspect, on the condition that she surrendered her passport to the court.
Maryam then filed a petition seeking a one-time permission to travel abroad for six weeks to take care of her then-ailing father. The federal cabinet, however, in December 2019 decided not to remove her name from the ECL.
In April this year, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid had said it was out of the question that the government would allow Maryam to go abroad. “Maryam Nawaz has not applied for removal of her name from the ECL. I had asked [Prime Minister] Imran Khan about it, but he said it was not possible. We should believe in Maryam, who is saying that she is not going abroad,” he said at the time.
