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ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has been asked to stop the authorities from issuing a diplomatic passport to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in the United Kingdom.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah will hear the petition on April 18.
Advocate Naeem Haider Panjutha, filed a petition, referring to the media reports that former premier Nawaz was being issued a diplomatic passport on the instructions of the newly-elected PM, Shehbaz Sharif.
He stated that it was mandatory for all convicts to surrender before the law, while Nawaz had “yet to surrender before the law”, while “the federal government is hurriedly trying to issue [a] diplomatic passport to him,” he claimed.
He prayed before the court to prevent the issuance of a diplomatic passport to Nawaz, direct the Establishment Division secretary to arrest him immediately upon his arrival in Pakistan and produce him before a court.
The petitioner contended that as Nawaz was “a court absconder who was convicted by National Accountability Court for corruption … it is violative of law, a mockery of the justice system and disgrace to the nation if a diplomatic passport is issued to a convict”.
The “issuance of a diplomatic passport to a convict is tantamount to bestowing respect, state protocols and dignity to a convict and if the convict is a court absconder it becomes a disgrace to the entire judicial system of the country,” he said, adding the act was also “against the spirit of the Constitution and against the fundamental rights whereby it has been guaranteed to every citizen that they will be treated equally”.
