Chaudhry Sugar Mills case: NAB moves SC against bail of Maryam Nawaz

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday requested the Supreme Court to set aside the order passed by the Lahore High Court (LHC), granting post-arrest bail to PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

The NAB chairman through Prosecutor General filed a petition under Article 185 of the Constitution seeking leave to appeal against the order passed by the LHC granting post-arrest bail to Mariam Nawaz.

On November 4, the LHC granted bail to Maryam Nawaz who was arrested on August 8 in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case. A two-member bench of the high court comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem, while announcing the verdict, had granted post-arrest bail to Mariam Nawaz directing her to furnish two surety bonds each worth Rs10 million, and deposit an additional Rs70 million and surrender her passport to secure her release.

The anti-graft body prayed to the apex court to allow for examining the legality, propriety and vires of the impugned judgment of the LHC as it has not appreciated the evidence available in record in its true perspective, which resulted in grave miscarriage of justice and has prejudiced the case of the prosecution.

"It is likelihood that the respondent Mariam Nawaz could be influential in tampering with the prosecution evidence in the proceedings undertaken by the Bureau therefore, the concession of post-arrest bail already granted to the said respondent be recalled by setting aside the impugned judgment”, it said.

The NAB submitted that the LHC erred in appreciating that the provisions under section 9 (a) read with section 14 (c) of the NAB Ordinance 1999 entailing that an objective appreciation of the prosecution evidence had to be evaluated and the prosecution succeeded in establishing culpability upon the respondent Mariam Nawaz and extraordinary circumstances did not exist for her bail.

The LHC was apprised of the fact that instant case is clear example of a white color crime and involves commission of offences under section 9(a) of NAB Ordinance 1999 and Section 3 of Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 wherein the respondent is prima facie emphatically connected with the commission of offences, hence the impugned order is liable to be dismissed by the apex court being based on surmises and conjectures”, the NAB contended.

It further submitted that the LHC has fallen in error by not considering the cardinal principle of criminal law as envisaged under the provisions of section 9(b) NAO, 1999

The NAB submitted that the accused Mariam Nawaz served as Chief Executive Officer of M/S Chaudhry Sugar Mills for the year 1995 and 1996 while she held 864,000 ordinary shares, which remained in her name till 2008.

“Subsequently accused Maryam Nawaz became the largest shareholder in M/S Chaudhry Sugar Mills in between 2008-2010 having over 12 million shares (47 percent) ownership”, NAB contended.

The NAB submitted that during the course of inquiry, when the respondent Mariam Nawaz and her father Nawaz Sharif were asked to explain the source of funds for making an investment of Rs2,000 million in M/S Chaudhry Sugar Mills and M/S Shamim Sugar Mills Limited from 2008-2018, however, the accused did not offer any explanation.

Thereafter, in execution of the warrants for arrest, issued by the NAB chairman on August 8, 2019, the accused petitioner Maryam Nawaz was arrested on the same date, the NAB submitted.