ISLAMABAD: The government has withdrawn its appeal against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif after he agreed not to pursue a contempt of court case against the former.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard an appeal against the Lahore High Court decision concerning letting Shehbaz travel abroad and removing his name from the blacklist during the ruling.
Shehbaz had petitioned the high court on May 7, saying he is a cancer survivor who now needs treatment abroad. The court in the evening ruled that he may travel to London between May 8 and July 3.
The LHC registrar presented the record in the apex court in this regard. Justice Ijazul Hassan inquired whether Shehbaz’s petition was fixed by the LHC according to the rules or it was heard in a special manner.
At this, the registrar responded that the petition was fixed for hearing objection. Then it was decided that the decision on objection would also be taken along with the case.
The registrar said that his office had put an objection on the petition on Friday at 9:30 am and the petition was heard at 11:30 am the same day.
The verdict drew criticism from the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, which said it will explore legal options to stop Shehbaz from leaving. Angered, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry described the ruling as a “joke” that he said could help Shehbaz “escape the law as his brother did” in 2019.
However, a day after the LHC verdict, the Federal Investigation Authority “placed” Shehbaz on “another list”, keeping him from leaving the country, party’s central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said.
He was scheduled to leave for Doha on a Qatar Airways flight from the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore in the wee hours of May 8. After spending ten days in mandatory isolation in the Qatar capital, he had planned to jet off to London.
However, when Shehbaz arrived at the airport to board the flight, FIA officials present there told him he could not catch the flight because his name was placed on a “person-not-in-list”, Aurangzeb said.
