LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to notify arrest warrants issued for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz at least 10 days in advance.
The directive comes in stark contrast to a 2019 Supreme Court ruling declaring that there was no limitation on the dirty money watchdog regarding the need to inform an accused before arresting them.
Maryam appeared before the high court on Monday to attend the hearing of a corruption case pertaining to the illegal acquiring of hundreds of acres of land in Raiwind to include it in the Jati Umra estate of the Sharif family.
A two-member bench of Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural resumed hearing in the case.
“Have you [NAB] issued arrest warrants [for Maryam Nawaz]?” asked the bench. A special prosecutor for the agency said they had not done so.
Maryam’s counsel, Azam Nazeer Tarar, requested the court to restrain the agency from issuing arrest warrants for his client without informing Maryam “10 days in advance”.
At this, the NAB prosecutor said the agency will inform Tarar in advance before the warrants are issued.
The bench told Tarar he can approach the high court if the arrest warrants are issued without prior information.
In 2016, an LHC order concluded by announcing that “may be interpreted to imply that NAB cannot arrest an accused without informing him first.”
However, the apex court had found that, after examining the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, no such limitation has been imposed on the accountability watchdog.
The reference says the Sharif family got thousands of kanals of land adjacent to its Jati Umra residence declared residential area in 2014 and former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema played an important role in this respect.
Former Lahore DCO Noorul Amin Mengal has also been included in the investigation.
NAB has nominated desposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, National Assembly Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam, and the Sharif brothers’ late mother Shamim Bibi as prime suspects in the reference.
PDM PARTIES ‘COMMITTED’:
Speaking to the media outside the LHC after the hearing, Maryam Nawaz said parties within the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) “are very committed to the cause”, and added that she trusted the leadership of PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Moreover, she said that the PDM’s reaction to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tearing up the show-cause notices issued by the alliance would be decided upon by the alliance president.
“We have full trust in his [Fazlur Rehman’s] leadership […] and he himself will take up the matter.”
“My clear stance has come out, I won’t repeat it but the decision to send the [show-cause] notice was of the PDM and not any one party,” added PML-N VP Maryam.
She also elaborated that the PDM’s cause was of huge importance to the country as it included the right of the rule of Pakistan’s nation, bringing real change in Pakistan, bringing relief to the people of Pakistan and correcting Pakistan’s course.
Responding to a question about former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secretary-general (SG) Jahangir Tareen, Maryam said that he is a lesson for all supporters of the PTI.
Tareen is currently being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for fraud and money laundering. Maryam Nawaz refused to comment on “internal matters”, but did state that he had initially not been targeted as part of the sugar mafia when his resources and assets were being used.
“Now, suddenly you remember that he is [part of the] sugar mafia and make cases against him so I just want to say to all supporters of theirs: learn from this and take heed.”
Maryam alleged that the PTI’s own MNAs were now moving away from the party and speaking against the ruling government on media outlets. She said that, on the other hand, the PML-N had been growing in strength thanks to the support of the people.
Maryam boasted that the day the PTI government loses, it would not have the strength to campaign again, let alone win.
Maryam claimed that during her visits to the Daska and Wazirabad, where by-elections were held, recently she had seen the “people’s sentiment, anger and hate against this government. I’d seen it that very day and knew that the PML-N would win [the by-elections]”.
“In my opinion, whenever elections are held, this government will be dealt such a defeat that the world will see and people will see this as a warning that never again do you commit vote theft, allow vote theft or reach the seat of power through polishing boots, betrayal and rigging.
“So I see that whenever elections are held, this fake vote-stealing government will go on to become an ibrat ka nishaan (example to take heed) and maybe through this, there is a great favour to Pakistan that the path for political engineering of this kind is forever closed,” said Maryam.
She informed that she would go to Karachi to support PML-N candidate Miftah Ismail in the NA-249 by-election, and called upon the people of the port city to vote for her party’s candidate to ensure development and progress in the provincial capital.
