LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday ruled that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had no locus standi to become a party to a matter of allowing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to go abroad for medical treatment.

PTI senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry filed a petition to become a party to the bail granting order of Nawaz Sharif in 2019.

A counsel for the petitioner argued that Nawaz Sharif was allowed to travel abroad in light of an undertaking given by his brother Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on a stamp paper of Rs50.

He said the former prime minister had not returned to the court so far despite the lapse of four years.

Judge asks why the party didn’t agitate the matter when it was in power

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, who was heading a division bench, observed that the PTI did not agitate the matter when it was in the government and now it wanted the court to take an action.

The judge observed that the federal government and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were party to the case, therefore, a political party had no locus standi to become a part to the proceedings.

Fawad Chaudhry said the Sharifs had committed a fraud with the court.

The judge, however, stopped the PTI leader from giving political statements in the court.

The bench dismissed the petition for being not maintainable. Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi was the other member on the bench.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Najafi had, in November 2019, allowed PML-N supermo Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad initially for an extendable period of four weeks.

The bench had granted permission mainly in light of undertakings submitted on behalf of Nawaz and his brother Shehbaz.

The federal government’s counsel had opposed the draft of the undertakings since there was no mention of any penalty in case of defiance.

The bench had ordered the counsel of Nawaz to keep filing his medical reports with the LHC registrar office.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2023