From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday granted bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif in Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Baqir Ali Najfi announced the verdict granting bail to Maryam Nawaz so that she can look after her ailing father, PML-N supreme leader Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Maryam Nawaz has been ordered to submit surety bonds worth Rs10 million to secure her release and surrender her passport.
The LHC had reserved the ruling on Oct 31 over her plea. During the hearing, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor had told the LHC that the petitioner sought bail for looking after her father Nawaz Sharif, however, the law has no space for such a genre of bail. The prosecutor had pleaded LHC to reject the petition and declare it non-maintainable.
A NAB had taken Maryam Nawaz into custody on August 8 citing her involvement in Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
The bureau had summoned the PML-N vice presiden to launch a probe into the corruption case but as she did not appear, was taken into custody from Kot Lakhpat jail where she was meeting her father, former PM Nawaz Sharif.
The Sharif family has been accused of using Chaudhry Sugar Mills for money-laundering and illegal transfer of its shares.
According to NAB, the family took a $15 million loan on the pretext to set up the mill despite the fact that it had already been established before the loan was acquired.
The NAB maintains that more than Rs7 million worth of shares were transferred to PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz in 2008 through mill’s shares, which were later transferred to her cousin Yousaf Abbas Sharif in 2010.
