ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear a petition attempting to prevent PML-N supremo and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from receiving a diplomatic passport upon his return to Pakistan.
The court has set April 18 as the date for the hearing (Monday).
The request comes two days after Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s newly-elected Prime Minister, demanded that his brother be awarded a diplomatic passport so that he can return home.
The petitioner, Naeem Haider, argued that the passport should not be released since “Nawaz Sharif is an absconding criminal.”
“As a result, officials should refuse to provide him a diplomatic passport.”
The petition demands that the PML-N supreme be detained immediately upon arrival and brought before a court of competent authority. The interior and foreign affairs secretaries were given the instructions for the issuance of the diplomatic passport, he said.
He asked the court to order the secretary of the Establishment Division to arrest Nawaz as soon as he arrives in Pakistan.
“Issuing a diplomatic passport to a convict is comparable to imparting respect, state protocols, and dignity to a convict,” he said, adding that if the convict is a court absconder, “it becomes a disgrace to the entire legal system of the country.”
The petitioner went on to say that giving the passport was “against the spirit of the Constitution and against the fundamental rights wherein every person is guaranteed to be treated equally.”
Last year, the British government denied Nawaz Sharif’s plea for a visa extension, dealing a severe blow to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Nawaz, who was convicted of corruption, has been residing in London since November 2019 after courts granted him permission to leave the country for medical treatment on the condition that he would return to Pakistan as soon as the treatment was over to fulfil his ten-year sentence.
However, after his departure from Pakistan, the incumbent government has viewed his medical condition, for which Pakistani courts granted him an unusual respite by enabling him to travel to London for treatment, as contrived.
Party leaders have stated repeatedly that it was Nawaz Sharif’s security worries, not his health, that prevented them from transporting him to Pakistan.
