With Justices Ali Baqar Najafi and Tariq Saleem Sheikh, the new panel of LHC will be presided over by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti. On September 14, the court shall discuss the matter (Wednesday).
LHC Maryam Nawaz:
It is crucial to note that the PML-N leader’s efforts to regain her passport have been the subject of a protracted court fight, as all benches assigned to the appeal up until this point had to be disbanded when many judges withdrew from the suit for a variety of factors.
3 days after a multiple-member panel forwarded the request to the chief justice due to one of its judges recusing himself from the case, a brand-new jury trial will now examine the matter.
A bench of Justices Ali Baqar Najafi and Muhammad Anwarul Haq Pannun had been assigned to hear the plea. The panel then forwarded the appeal to the chief justice with a recommendation to have it heard by any other suitable bench.
Three judges turned down Maryam’s request for a passport earlier this year so she could go to Saudi Arabia and practice the Umrah.
She was given post-arrest bail by the panel, which was presided over by Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi who made the observation that the matter must be reviewed by the appropriate panel that had previously heard it.
A subsequent division bench presided over by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi heard the argument. Justice Farooq Haider, one of the other judges present, declined to take up the case for reasons that were renowned to the judge, who made the announcement as the sessions got underway.
After that, a request to bring this case first before the jury was made with the case file to Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti.
After then, the case was heard by a different bench headed by Justice Najafi, however Justice Asjad Javed Ghural withdrew from the proceedings.
The LHC chief justice was then contacted once more to have it heard by a different bench. Last but not least, the applicant withdrew it.
Details of the petition that was made are stated as follows;
After being approved post-arrest acquittal in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) case as in almost four years ago after submitting surety bonds in the amount of Rs10 million from each of two sureties with the trial court and individually accumulating Rs70 million with the registrar general.
The PML-N recently made another application to the high court for the return of her passport. She must have relinquished it before the LHC deputy registrar.
In a new civil miscellaneous document attached to her ongoing writ petition, Maryam said that “after a delay of almost four years, no reference has been made even against the applicant as of today regardless of the fact that the investigation was started on November 14, 2018”
“The withholding of the passport for an indeterminate duration tantamount to being in violation of her basic freedoms to treated in conformity with the law, survival, dignity, privilege of mobility, and fair security of the law,” the PML-N leader argued.
The document continued, “Settled norms of administration of the criminal justice system as well as essential liberties fair trials and just jury hearing assured, vide Article 10-A of the charter, [the] suspect does not lose basic rights of diagnosis even when under investigation.”
