LAHORE, April 5: The Lahore High Court on Monday allowed the father of a girl to get her treated in the UK for blindness without removing her from the custody of her mother.

Justice Fakharun Nisa observed in the interim order passed on the prayer of the minor's father: "Mother being the best nurse in the universe shall follow the minor to the UK. Visas and return tickets of the minor and the mother shall be arranged by the petitioner-father. During her stay in the UK, the minor shall not be removed from the custody of her mother. The minor shall return to Pakistan along with her mother after treatment."

Earlier, the father's counsel placed on record the report of the medical superintendent of the Faisalabad District Headquarters Hospital. According to the report, the minor was visually disabled and could not be treated anywhere in the country.

The counsel also placed on record the letter of a British consultant ophthalmic surgeon stating that the right eye of the minor was completely blind but the left had some light perception which might be improved by surgery.

The mother of the minor had refused to send her to the UK alone or with her father-in-law but expressed willingness to accompany her daughter for treatment abroad. The father undertook to bear the expenses of the travel of his daughter to the UK, her stay and treatment there and return. He was willing to bear only the food expenses of his wife during her stay in the UK.

The maternal grandfather, however, offered to bear the residential expenses of the minor and her mother in the UK.

Ex-MNA: The LHC ordered deletion of ex-MNA Rana Tanvir Husain's name from the Exit Control List and allowed him to travel abroad on furnishing a surety of Rs500,000.

Deputy Attorney-General Peraiz Malik submitted that an accountability court had convicted the PML-N leader in an assets' case and sentenced him to five-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs8.9 million.

Opposing Rana Tanvir's request for deletion of his name from ECL, the DAG submitted that the LHC Appellate Bench had suspended his sentence. His name could be deleted from the ECL only on the orders of the NAB chairman. NAB counsel Tipu Khan contended that the petitioner's name could not be deleted from the ECL till his acquittal from the case.