The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed NAB to submit a complete report regarding the objection petition filed in the Federal Constitutional Court during the hearing of the case related to the return of Rs700 million bail surety of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
The hearing was conducted by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, comprising Justice Jawad Zafar and Justice Ahbar Gul. During the proceedings, Deputy Attorney General Rifat Dogar appeared on behalf of the federal government, while Special Prosecutor NAB Fatima Shahid represented the National Accountability Bureau. Assistant Advocate General Punjab Waqas Umar was also present in court.
During the hearing, the NAB prosecutor informed the court that an appeal had been filed in the Federal Constitutional Court against a previous order of the High Court. At this, Chief Justice Aalia Neelum asked the prosecutor to produce the relevant order of the appeal before the court.
NAB’s counsel stated that the appeal filed before the Federal Constitutional Court had been withdrawn. However, the Chief Justice questioned where the withdrawal application submitted to the court was.
The NAB prosecutor responded that the application had not yet been assigned a registration number. The court, in response, questioned how an application could be withdrawn if it had not even been officially registered.
The NAB counsel further stated that objections had been raised on the said application. The court directed that all relevant documents should be made part of the judicial record through a miscellaneous application.
The NAB lawyer requested time to file the miscellaneous application, which was granted by the court.
Subsequently, the three-member bench adjourned the hearing until May 4 and directed NAB to submit the complete record at the next hearing.
