LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz left for London on Wednesday to reunite with her father PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif, who left Pakistan for the United Kingdom on medical grounds in 2019 and has remained there ever since.
The development comes a day after Maryam’s passport was returned by the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) office of the deputy registrar (judicial) in light of directives issued by a full bench. The court had directed officials to return her passport which she had surrendered in 2019 in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
It also comes after Maryam’s conviction in the Avenfield apartments reference was overturned by the Islamabad High Court, which now paves the way for her to contest any upcoming election. “I am eager to meet my father,” Maryam told reporters as she arrived at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Wednesday.
The PML-N leader said she was “thankful to Almighty Allah that I am finally going to meet my father”. “I cannot wait for my plane to land and to meet my father,” she said.
Talking to reporters, her husband, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, said Maryam would look after her father in London and also supervise his medical treatment. “She will also hold detailed discussions on the current political situation,” Safdar added.
Maryam was first placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) in the Al Azizia Steel Mills reference while her name was added to the no-fly list again in 2020 in connection to the investigation in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.
Her name was struck off the ECL in April this year after the government introduced significant changes to the rules controlling citizens’ exit from the country in an attempt to end the practice of keeping people on the no-fly list for years and even for over a decade.
