Pak court grants bail to Maryam Nawaz in money laundering case

A Pakistani court on Monday granted bail to Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in a money laundering case.

A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi granted Maryam bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case of money laundering. The court had reserved the verdict in the case on October 31.

Maryam had filed her bail application in the case on "merits and humanitarian grounds". She had pleaded that she wanted to look after her father whose condition is "critical".

All three of siblings -- Hussain, Hasan and Asma -- have been in London. Sharif's both sons have been declared proclaimed offenders by the Pakistani accountability court in corruption cases.

"The court has granted Maryam bail on merit and not on humanitarian grounds," a LHC official told PTI.

The official said the court granted her bail after listening arguments from both sides. He said the court also observed that she is a woman and could not be put behind the bars till money laundering charges are not proved against her. She has been asked to surrender her passport to the court.

She is also on bail in the Avenfield corruption case in which she was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Maryam, who is the vice-president of the PML-N, was arrested in the first week of August in the money laundering case of Chaudhry Sugar Mills.

The 69-year-old three-time prime minister has already secured bail for eight weeks on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven-year imprisonment.

He has been under treatment in Lahore's Services Hospital for his different medical complications especially his low platelets and heart.

There are strong rumours that Sharif will soon leave for London for his treatment and Maryam may also company him after the government remove their banes from no-fly list.

The PML-N has already declared that Sharif will decide about his leaving abroad for his treatment.