LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench on Thursday sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on an application filed by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for the return of the surety amount deposited against bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum heard the application.

The chief justice observed that the court which granted bail to Ms Nawaz had the jurisdiction to order the refund of the surety amount.

The CJ asked the counsel for the chief minister as to why the approval for the refund was not obtained from the court which had allowed the bail.

The counsel, Javed Arshad, claimed that this was not necessary under the law.

The bench issued a notice to the NAB for submission of a reply to the plea by Feb 4.

Other members of the bench were Justice Jawad Zafar and Justice Abher Gul Khan.

The application stated that a case made against the petitioner by the NAB had been closed. It said the NAB had also withdrawn its application for the cancellation of Ms Nawaz’s bail in the same case.

The application asked the court to order the LHC’s registrar judicial to return the deposited amount of Rs70 million to the applicant.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2026