Pak govt to challenge Lahore HC's decision allowing Shehbaz Sharif to fly abroad

Islamabad [Pakistan], May 10 (ANI): The Pakistan government will appeal against the Lahore High Court's (LHC) decision to allow Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif to fly abroad, announced Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the federal minister said that the government had its options open regarding the verdict, reported The Express Tribune.
"The way Shehbaz Sharif was allowed to leave Pakistan is a reflection of our dilapidated system," Chaudhary said, while claiming that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was fighting this system and will continue to fight.
"Allowing Shehbaz to leave is tantamount to acknowledging the prevalent class system [in the country], as other prisoners do not enjoy the privilege of receiving treatment abroad. It gives rise to the impression that elites can set themselves free while the poor languish in jails," the minister added.
He further said that the PML-N president should have been asked how his guarantee could be accepted when the person who he was a guarantor for, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had not returned yet.
Meanwhile, Adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Shahzad Akbar, alleged that the PML-N was misleading the public, saying that the evidence against the opposition party was documented, reported The Express Tribune.
On Friday, the LHC had granted conditional permission to the PML-N President to travel abroad once for medical treatment.
However, hours after he was granted permission, Shehbaz was reportedly stopped from flying to the United Kingdom at Lahore airport on Saturday morning.
According to the Dawn newspaper, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has allegedly placed his name on "another list", preventing him from leaving the country.
"When Shahbaz Sharif came to the airport today, FIA officials stopped him and said he could not travel because there was another list, a 'person-not-in-list'," said PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday.
Shahbaz had earlier approached the LHC to challenge the placement of his name on a travel blacklist/no-fly list and seek one-time permission to go abroad for medical treatment.
In the petition, the opposition leader, who is on bail in multiple references of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), contended that the government had previously placed him on the ECL.
Last month, the LHC granted Shahbaz post-arrest bail in a money laundering case. Shahbaz, the brother of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is in London since 2019, was arrested on September 28, 2020, in the money laundering reference after the LHC refused to further extend his pre-arrest bail. (ANI)