The Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday gave conditional permission to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif to travel abroad, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The LHC has ordered to remove the name of Shehbaz from the Blacklist. Shehbaz has been allowed to leave the country for eight weeks.

Shehbaz has already booked a ticket in the Qatar Airways flight for May 8 to go to England for a medical check-up.

Earlier, the LHC reserved its verdict in Shehbaz Sharif’s petition, seeking deletion of his name from the Blacklist.  

Shehbaz, in the petition, had prayed to the court that since he had already set a precedent by returning home in 2020, leaving his ailing mother behind in the UK, the federal government be ordered to remove his name from the Blacklist, so that he could fly abroad for treatment.  

He had further contended that barring him from travelling abroad was a violation of basic human rights.   

During the hearing, when Justice Baqir Ali Najafi inquired whether Shehbaz wanted to submit surety bonds in order to secure bail, Amjad Pervez, counsel for the PML-N president, replied that the Sindh High Court (SHC) order had barred from linking removal of somebody’s name from the no-fly list to some condition.    

Justice Najafi remarked since Shehbaz was a popular man, therefore, he would not be asked to submit surety bonds.

When the judge asked Shehbaz whether he would like to ask something, the latter replied that he had come home just a day before the lockdown. “I am the son of this soil,” Opposition Leader in NA claimed.

The lawyer, representing the government, initially requested the court to take up the case for hearing after Eid holidays.

But when the court rejected his plea, he pointed out that there was no mention of an ‘emergency’ in PML-N president’s application, seeking lifting of the travel ban. “UK government has already banned the entry of people from Pakistan,” he reminded.

Quoting Shehbaz’s lawyer, state counsel said that if he had built hospitals during his stint as chief minister of Punjab, why did he not seek treatment at those hospitals instead of heading to UK or any other country?  

When Justice Najafi asked the state counsel what kind of guarantee he wanted to seek from a leader of the opposition that he would return home, the counsel replied that Shehbaz had already guaranteed in writing the return of his elder brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who had not come back so far. “When he has not been able to bring his brother back home even after having given a guarantee in writing, how one can be sure that he would not break his promise this time,” the state counsel asked.