Maryam finally receives passport from LHC

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz received her passport from the Lahore High Court (LHC) deputy registrar's office (judicial) on Tuesday which she had surrendered to the court in 2019 in return for securing bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case.

The PML-N leader was accompanied by party leaders Pervaiz Rashid and Hina Pervaiz Butt among others.

Maryam was asked by The Express Tribune if she would use her passport to fly to England and return with her father, former premier Nawaz Sharif. "May your words come true," said the PML-N leader in response.

Party supremo Nawaz Sharif was sentenced in 2018 to 11 years of imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Avenfield properties references.

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His sentence was suspended in 2019 by the LHC on medical grounds and he was permitted to fly to London to seek treatment, after which he went into self-imposed exile.

LHC orders return of passport

The LHC on Monday directed the deputy registrar to return Maryam’s passport, following four years of back and forth and petitions before the court.

The development came after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) set aside Maryam’s conviction in the Avenfield case.

A three-member bench, headed by LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, issued the directives.

The bench heard the plea regarding the return of her passport which she had surrendered before the LHC after she had been granted post-arrest bail in the Chaudhary Sugar Mills Limited (CSML) case.

Later, taking to her official Twitter handle, Maryam stated that she had been returned her passport, after “it was confiscated three years ago in a case that has not been filed to date”.