KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted bail to the former federal minister of petroleum Dr. Asim Hussain on medical grounds, ARY News reported.
An accountability court last year had indicted Dr Hussain, ex-petroleum secretary Ejaz Chaudhry and others in an over Rs460 billion corruption reference.
Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar of SHC granted him bail in mega corruption cases by accepting the bail plea. The PPP leader will also submit surety bonds of Rs 5 million.
Anwar Mansoor Khan, lawyer to Dr. Asim Hussain, apprised the bench that petitioner’s health condition was deteriorating and he needs complete bed rest.
Dr Hussain was taken into custody on August 26, 2015 by Rangers on different corruption charges.
Earlier, a division bench of SHC had issued split orders over Dr. Asim’s bail petition on February 2.
Justice Farooq Shah had accepted the bail plea filed by the accused while Justice Karim Khan Agha had rejected the bail plea.
The bail plea later was referred to a referee judge for final orders. The referee judge, Justice Aftab Ahmed Goror, today finally granted bail to the accused.
Dr Asim faced charges of misusing his authority for getting plots allotted fraudulently and encroaching upon state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust, money laundering, illegal gains, kickbacks, commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike and defrauding people in the name of charity hospital.
‘The Big Fish’
The NAB had said that the former petroleum minister had allegedly misused his powers by getting plots allotted fraudulently, encroaching state land for expansion of Dr. Ziauddin Hospital/ money laundering, kickbacks, illegal gains, receiving commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price and defrauding people in the name of charity hospital.
The NAB had alleged that he had deprived public exchequer of Rs 462 billion.
Dr. Asim Hussain was admitted atNational Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) due to his deteriorating health.
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