Lahore HC continues hearing in Nawaz Sharif's ECL case today

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday continued hearing a petition challenging the government's condition of furnishing an indemnity bond for the removal of prime minister Nawaz Sharif's name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The high court had yesterday declared the petition as maintainable after hearing the arguments of PML-N's legal team and the respondents, Dawn reported.

The case was heard by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem.

The government, represented by Additional Attorney General (AAG) Chaudhry Ishtiaq A. Khan, had argued that the petition was not within the jurisdiction of the High Court.

"The arguments advanced by the learned additional attorney general that the conditions mentioned in the impugned memorandum are based upon the judgement pronounced by the accountability court, Islamabad, and challenged before the Islamabad High Court, therefore, this court lacks jurisdiction, has not impressed us," said the bench in its three-page short verdict.

On Wednesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, after much deliberation, had granted a one-time permission to the PML-N supremo for four weeks to travel to London for his treatment provided that he submitted an indemnity bond worth over Rs7.5 billion.

The condition was challenged in LHC by the PML-N legal team, on behalf of the former premier, on Thursday and was taken up by the two-member bench on the same day.

Nawaz Sharif was rushed from Kot Lakhpat jail to the hospital last month after his personal physician Dr Adnan Khan raised an alarm over his deteriorating health.

Following this, Nawaz's brother Shehbaz Sharif had submitted a request to the interior ministry as well as NAB for the removal of the former's name from the ECL so that he could travel abroad for medical treatment.

Sharif was expected to leave Pakistan on Sunday. However, his ticket was cancelled as the authorities did not remove his name from the ECL list.