LAHORE: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday received her passport from the office of the deputy registrar (judicial) of the Lahore High Court in the light of a direction issued by a full bench the other day.

Maryam visited the LHC office along with her counsel and party leaders to fulfill the process to get her passport back.

The full bench headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti also issued its written order on her petition. Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh were the other members of the bench.

Allowing the petition of Maryam, the bench noted that the court, in view of the opinion of the deputy prosecutor of the NAB, was left with no option except to allow the application.

The bench withdrew the condition of surrendering the passport mentioned in the 2019 bail granting order with a direction to the deputy registrar (judicial) to return the passport(s) to the petitioner forthwith after due verification.In November 2019, a two-member bench of the LHC had granted a post-arrest bail to Ms Sharif in the case, observing that the ‘bail cannot be withheld as a punishment’.

The bench had asked Ms Sharif to furnish Rs10 million surety bonds, with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court. She was also ordered to deposit an amount of Rs70m with the court ‘to establish her bona fide’ and submit her passport as the prosecution feared she might flee the country.NAB had arrested Ms Sharif in August 2019 when she went to Kot Lakhpat jail to see her incarcerated father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2022