The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday opposed the merits of bail petition of Maryam Nawaz before the Lahore High Court in Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case and said she could flee the country or go underground if released on bail.

A NAB prosecutor submitted its reply to bail petition of Maryam heard by a division bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem.

To a court's query, counsel of Maryam Nawaz confirmed that the petitioner had been allowed by the authorities to visit her father and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Services Hospital.

The bench adjourned hearing till Tuesday (today) after the counsel sought time to prepare his arguments after going through the bureau's reply.

The NAB in its reply said the petitioner had been trying to frustrate and hamper the investigation and there was a likelihood of her fleeing the country or make herself scarce or going underground or become unavailable". The reply added that co-accused Yousaf Abbas had tried to escape abroad. The bureau said the petitioner had been trying to mislead the court taking a misconceived plea that the CSM inquiry had already been a subject matter of three references filed by a JIT in Panama papers case and subsequently decided by an Islamabad accountability court.

It said the allegations in the instant inquiry found no mention in the mandate of the Panama papers' JIT. The NAB asked the court to dismiss the bail petition of Maryam Nawaz being devoid and without any merit. The bureau had already filed its reply challenging a civil miscellaneous application of Maryam seeking bail in the same case on humanitarian ground.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019