LHC granted bail to Maryam Nawaz
Lahore … News Time
The Lahore High Court, in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, granted the verdict on the request of Maryam Nawaz, vice president of the PML-N, granted his bail and ordered his release. A two-member bench comprising Justice Ali Baqir Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem reserved the judgment on October 31 following the arguments of both the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the applicant’s lawyer in the aforementioned case. The court today, while accepting the bail plea of Maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case, ordered them to submit 2 crores of crores each. At the same time, the court ordered Maryam Nawaz to submit an additional Rs 7 crore but also ordered her to submit her passport.
It may be recalled that the Vice President of the PML-N came to the court on September 30 for his arrest after bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. However, following the sudden demise of his father, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, late last month, he filed a miscellaneous application October 24 for basic rights and humanitarian guarantees. The petition had numerous hearings in court, but at the previous hearing, NAB lawyer Jahanzeb Bharwana opposed the request for a humanitarian case against Maryam Nawaz, and said that it is clear in the Supreme Court decision that the accused can only be granted bail in the most extraordinary circumstances. He said that the case of Maryam Nawaz did not come under exceptional circumstances.
Maryam Nawaz’s arrest It is believed that the National Accountability Agency arrested Maryam Nawaz and his cousin Yousuf Abbas August 8 in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. Later, he was produced in court, where his physical remand was granted and handed over to the NAB. The physical remand of Maryam Nawaz was also extended. However, on September 25, the Lahore Accountability Court sent them to jail on judicial remand, which was extended several times. It should be remembered here that in another corruption case in Avenfield, Islamabad’s accountability court also sentenced Maryam Nawaz to seven years imprisonment, the Islamabad High Court, however, suspended the sentence.
Ch. Sugar Mills Case:
It is to be noted that during the PML-N government’s rule in January 2018, the financial monitoring sector in the country had informed the NAB regarding heavy suspicious transactions of Chaudhry Sugar Mills under the Money Laundering Act. NAB is suspected of involvement of Maryam Nawaz in money laundering by investing a large sum of money as the central partner of Ch. Sugar Mills in this case. Nawaz Sharif is accused of being involved in money laundering with the help of some foreigners during 93-1992 and Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister at that time.
In this case, it was revealed during the NAB investigation in October 2018 that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and his brother Abbas Sharif’s family, in addition, some foreigners from the United States and the United Kingdom are partners in the company. Sources said that billions of rupees were invested in Chaudhry Sugar Mills in the name of foreigners between 2001 and 2017 and they were given millions of shares. Then the same shares were returned to Maryam Nawaz, Hussein Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif several times without any payment. It was concluded that foreigners were used as proxies for investing heavily in the company. Because the money used by the Sharif family to invest was not legal. Maryam Nawaz appeared on the request of the NAB for investigation on 31 July 2019. And Chaudhry recorded his statement before the NAB team for 45 minutes in connection with the suspected transactions of Sugar Mills.
In this case, Yusuf Abbas and Maryam Nawaz were involved in the investigation but the investor was unable to identify the foreigners and provide sources of money. And Maryam sent in the notice but could not answer any question other than the question. At which the NAB summoned Nawaz Nawaz on August 8, details of his partnership with Chaudhry Sugar Mills, foreigners, UAE citizen Saeed Saif bin Jabar Al-Suweidi, Sheikh Zakauddin, a British citizen, was instructed to provide details on financial matters related to Saudi citizen Hani Ahmad Jamjoom and UAE citizen Naseer Abdullah Lootah. In addition, details of remittances / telegraphic transfers received and sent to her from overseas from Maryam Nawaz were also sought. On August 8, however, Maryam Nawaz was arrested outside Kot Lakhpat Jail after returning to visit her father Nawaz Sharif.
