Dubai: An accountability court has extended the physical remand of Pakistan’s outspoken opposition leader Maryam Nawaz for another 14-days in a graft case.
Maryam and her cousin Yousuf Abbas had earlier been remanded into custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following their arrest on August 8 in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case.
Maryam is the vice president of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and has been very critical of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s governemnt after her father and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was jailed in corruption cases.
During the court proceedings on Wednesday amidst strict security measures, NAB’s lawyer said that the investigations with Maryam had not yet been completed and requested an extension in physical remand for another 15 days, Dawn news reported.
In response, Maryam’s lawyer Advocate Amjad Pervez said that the investigation had been carried out in all cases and the trial had been completed.
Earlier, the judge expressed displeasure at selfies being taken with the PML-N leader in the courtroom. The court also experienced a power outage during the proceeding. The noise created by party workers who thronged the court premises.
The judge granted NAB 14-day physical remand and ordered that Maryam should be presented before the court on September 4.
What is Chaudhry Sugar Mills case
Maryam had appeared before NAB on July 31 to record her statement in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) reference. The statement was regarding ‘dubious’ business transactions of the CSM of which she was one of the major shareholders.
According to NAB, in January 2018 the PML-N government’s financial monitoring unit reported to NAB a huge suspicious transaction involving billions of rupees in the M/s Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd under Anti-Money Laundering Act.
A NAB inquiry started in October 2018 detected that Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahbaz Sharif and the family of the late Abbas Sharif are shareholders in the company along with some foreign investors.
