Fourth LHC bench constituted to hear Maryam’s passport plea

LAHORE, April 26: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice formed on Tuesday a new bench to take up PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s petition seeking the return of her passport to travel to Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah. This is the fourth time the high court has formed the bench to hear the plea. The new bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem will take up the matter. Earlier in the day, two benches rescued themselves from hearing the petition. A bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Farooq Haider was hearing the petition when the former remarked that his colleague was not willing to hear the case due to unknown reasons. The matter was then sent to Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti to place it before another bench. Later, another bench was constituted under the stewardship of Justice Najafi and comprising Justice Asjad Javed Ghural as a member. Shortly after the proceedings started, Justice Najafi said that Justice Ghural was not willing to proceed ahead with the case. The matter was once again sent to the LHC chief justice with a request to constitute a new bench. Before that, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Shehbaz Rizvi had refused to hear the case on April 21. Maryam stated in her petition that she wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia on April 27 to perform Umrah, requesting the court to return her passport. Former premier Nawaz Sharif’s daughter had submitted her passport in the court after it approved her bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case. -DNA