'Nawaz doesn't want to go abroad alone, Maryam's bail hearing fixed on Tuesday'

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, reacting to today’s Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision of approving former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s bail, said he has been saying for six months that the PML-N supremo is going abroad.

“I have been saying for six months that Nawaz Sharif is going [abroad],” he said while talking exclusively to ARY News. He claimed the former premier doesn’t want to go abroad alone, hinting at Maryam Nawaz getting bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case next week.

The minister said Maryam’s bail petition is fixed for hearing on Tuesday.

“I have been saying all along that Oct, Nov and December are of immense significance. I said this too at a cabinet meeting,” he said.

In a reference to today’s IHC decision, he said all those facing corruption charges should have also been granted bail.

“It is true that we can’t treat certain patients in Pakistan,” he said, without elaborating further.

“Whatever the two parties wanted before the sit-in have achieved,” he said in an apparent reference to the PML-N and PPP. He advised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazl ur Rehman to review his decision of holding the anti-government march.

Earlier this evening, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif bail on medical grounds in the Al-Azizia case.

A division bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani approved the bail of the PML-N supremo until Tuesday against two surety bonds of Rs1 million each.

A LHC bench, a day earlier, had granted bail to Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.