LAHORE: Ms Nusrat Shehbaz, wife of Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, has moved the Lahore High Court, challenging her non-bailable arrest warrants issued by an accountability court in the money laundering and illegal assets reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Ms Shehbaz, who at present lives in London, has filed her petition through PML-N deputy secretary general Attaullah Tarar as a special attorney.

The petitioner pleads that she is an old and infirm woman of over 66 years of age and a known chronic patient of a number of serious ailments, including cardiac issues. She states that she had to go abroad during early 2019 for health reasons and since then she is stuck there for her medical treatment.

Denying the allegation of fleeing the country to avoid the proceedings, Ms Shehbaz submits that she was already abroad when the NAB started issuing call-up notices to her.

She also questions the jurisdiction of the trial court to issue the warrants, since she has not been residing within its territory prior to filing of the reference.

Ms Shehbaz contends that she filed an application for exemption from personal appearance, supported with verified medical documents, in the proceedings, but the trial court dismissed the same contrary to the facts.

She asked the LHC to set aside the impugned order of the trial court regarding denial of exemption from personal appearance and the issuance of her non-bailable arrest warrants for being illegal.

VERDICT RESERVED: An accountability court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on an application of Shehbaz Sharif filed for formation of a medical board for his checkup in the jail.

Presiding Judge Jawadul Hassan heard the arguments of the applicant’s counsel and the NAB prosecutor in the chamber before reserving the verdict.

Mr Shehbaz is in judicial lockup since Oct 20, 2020, in the money laundering reference. He has not approached the LHC so far for a post-arrest bail.

His son Hamza is also behind bars in the same case.

PDM: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday reserved verdict on the maintainability of a petition seeking a restraining order against the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) from holding its protest outside the building of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

After hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioner’s counsel, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan reserved his verdict on the point of the jurisdiction of the court to entertain such petition.

Muneer Ahmad, a lawyer, filed the petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique saying the protest by the PDM was illegal and against the spirit of Article 16 of the Constitution, which provides the citizens fundamental right to assembly and the public order of the society.

The petitioner said the unconstitutional protests by the PDM clearly fell within the offences of high treason and sedition. He submitted that the protest being held by the PDM outside the ECP was unconstitutional as the latter was a constitutional body. He alleged that the protest was an attempt to hinder the ECP from following the constitutional mandate which had been set out for it in various provisions of the Constitution.

The petitioner asked the court to order the government authorities to set the law in motion and proceed against the PDM and its members for their illegal and unconstitutional actions.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2021